PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Telephone Services (31 October 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average (a) waiting time for people calling and (b) time people spent on hold for his Department was in each of the last five years.

Asked by:
Rupert Lowe (Restore Britain)

The average waiting time for people calling the Defra General Helpline in each of the last five years is set out below:

Reporting Year	Average Wait Time (minutes, seconds)
2024 / 2025	01:11
2023 / 2024	01:23
2022 / 2023	00:50
2021 / 2022	00:58
2020 / 2021	00:32
2019 / 2020	00:20

Please note, a reporting year runs 1 April to 31 March. Therefore, the data provided for 2024/2025 covers 1 April 2024 to 4 November 2025.

Defra does not hold data on the time people spent on hold to the Defra General Helpline after getting through to a call-handler in each of the last five years. Whilst Defra’s call logging system records the length of the call from the second the call is answered by the call-handler to the second the customer hangs up, any periods on hold during that time, for instance whilst the call-handler searches for an answer to a question asked or whilst the call-handler transfers the person to another contact, are not measured.

Answered by:
Daniel Zeichner (Labour)
11 November 2024