Thank you for your letter of 16 September. I have now had a chance to look at the Ombudsman's report and welcome the MCA's general acceptance of his recommendations. Thank you for sending me the enclosures with revisions of the information requested.

I am now enclosing for your information a copy of the letter I received from the Permanent Secretary, together with my reply. While I welcomed the Ombudsman's report, and would now wish to draw a line under the communication problems that have arisen, you will see that I also feel that many important matters remain unresolved.

You will not be surprised to hear that I intend to pursue them, so I expect we shall be in touch before too long. In the meantime, thank you for all the hard work you have put in - generously acknowledged in the Ombudsman's report - and for your resilience in handling some of my more vivid observations. I do appreciate this has been a frustrating experience all round - but I've just had a very good holiday and I hope you have (or soon will) too.