WriteToThem.com Zeitgeist 2005
Between 2001 and 2004 our predecessor FaxYourMP.com published a league table of MP responsiveness data, measuring the proportion of users who said that they had heard something back from their MP after they had written to them.
In 2005 mySociety held off publishing an updated version of this data because we were busy totally rebuilding FaxYourMP as WriteToThem, adding all the UK's 20,000+ other elected representatives, such as councillors and MSPs.
We are now publishing this data to celebrate WriteToThem's first birthday, and to fulfil our parent charity's registered objects — to conduct research into the interaction between elected bodies and the Internet.
Messages to MPs during 2005
MP Responsiveness League Table
Note: During the period up to a General Election there are no MPs, by electoral law. We disabled WriteToThem's facility for writing to MPs on 14th April, enabling it again a week after the election on 12th May.
Performance of elected bodies
| Rank | Elected body | Response rate (in 2 to 3 weeks) * | People writing for first time † | Messages sent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | House of Commons | 63% (14,051 out of 22,231) | 44% (9,416 out of 21,514) | 29,976 |
| 2. | Welsh Assembly Members | 58% (105 out of 180) | 35% (60 out of 170) | 252 |
| 3. | London Assembly Members | 56% (192 out of 342) | 36% (110 out of 308) | 569 |
| 4. | Members of the European Parliament | 53% (2,087 out of 3,970) | 36% (1,322 out of 3,630) | 7,069 |
| 5. | Councillors | 49% (1,229 out of 2,497) | 53% (1,253 out of 2,365) | 3,720 |
| 6. | Members of the Scottish Parliament | 28% (158 out of 573) | 38% (202 out of 538) | 929 |
| Total / average | 60% (17,822 out of 29,793) | 43% (12,363 out of 28,525) | 42,515 |
Note: The Northern Ireland Assembly was added to
WriteToThem.com in February 2006, so does not appear here.
* Measured by survey of all users, asking 2 to 3 weeks after sending the message
if they have got a response yet.
† Measured by survey of all users, asking if this is the first time they
have written to an elected representative of any kind.
Which party has the most responsive MPs?
|
First time writers by party
This table shows our estimate of the percentage of authors contacting MPs of each party who were writing to an elected representative for the first time. |
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