What can you do if your representative hasn’t replied?
In our last post, we looked at whether or not our elected representatives are legally obliged to respond to messages from constituents (spoiler alert — they aren’t).
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t expect a reply — it’s only common courtesy, especially if your message is a personal one that you’ve spent some time on; and most representatives recognise that it’s part of their duties to respond even if it’s not set in law.
There are a few avenues open to you if you’d like a reply but haven’t received one.
Following up
To state the obvious: chase your message up.
Not immediately, of course: we usually advise that two weeks is a fair amount of time to wait for a response, unless your issue is very urgent of course. If you haven’t received a reply by then, try:
- Email — respond to any auto-reply or acknowledgement you may have received when you first sent your message, or failing that, return to WriteToThem and begin a new message.
- Phone — call your representative’s local office: you’ll find the number on their website.
- Face-to-face — most representatives run local drop-in sessions (‘surgeries’) and/or will take private appointments. You should be able to find details on their website.
Pursue other routes
- If you’re trying to get a personal problem fixed, it may be quicker to raise your issue elsewhere — for example asking your local Citizens Advice Bureau for advice. The CAB is set up to point you in the direction of the specialist organisations who can advise on your issue, such as charities that offer help with problems in housing, finances or benefits, for example.
- If appropriate, contact your representatives at other levels: for example local councillors, MEPs or regional representatives. These can all be contacted through WriteToThem.
Be proactive
If you’ve tried the above to no avail, turn your dissatisfaction into something useful:
- Contact your local media about your issue, and maybe mention your MP’s lack of action too — that might get things changed.
- Join the political party that best reflects your beliefs, and see how you can help them campaign to get a better representative in place in the next election. Even if you’re in a safe seat constituency, with no hope of ousting the current representative, just having an opposition party that brings issues to the table means that a debate must be had.
- Find a pressure group or organisation that campaigns around your issue, and help them in whatever way you can. They might be interested in sharing your story; or you could help them raise money and/or awareness.
Check yourself
We can’t write a post like this without acknowledging that there may be a good reason for your representative not having replied.
You can increase your own chances of getting a response by making sure your message is:
- Addressed to the right representative
Many people may not be aware that different types of representatives deal with different types of issue.
When you go to WriteToThem.com and input your postcode, we take you to a page where all your representatives are listed, with a brief explanation of what each of them does — so for example, if you’re writing about a local issue such as rubbish collection, you’ll want to contact your councillor rather than your MP.
On the other hand, if you’re writing to express your views on an upcoming vote in Parliament, you will of course want it to go to your MP.
- Written in your own words
When campaigns ask people to send a message to their MPs, it can result in them receiving hundreds or even thousands of identical emails. In such cases it’s common for MPs to deal with the huge influx by issuing a statement on their website, or at the most, sending out a rote response. We always advise using your own words and your own experiences or feelings when making a point to a representative — it’s far more likely to have an effect.
- Not too frequent
Obviously, we’re all for contacting your representatives and playing an active part in democracy — why else would we have created WriteToThem? At the same time, we recognise that it’s possible to be too communicative.
If you’re writing to your representative on a weekly or even daily basis, it’s quite understandable that they may choose to respond to other constituents before you, so that everyone gets a fair share of the time they have available.
Equally if they’ve already responded to a message and you’re rewriting to make the same point again, without progressing the discussion, then responding may seem like little more than lip service.
- Polite
Representatives are human too. Rude or demanding messages may intimidate or just annoy them, and will certainly make them less inclined to help or to see your point of view.
- Timely
If you’re writing about a specific topic, the best time to do so is just before there’s going to be a debate on the issue.
You can check what’s in the calendar on our site TheyWorkForYou. Time your message right, you might even get your words quoted in Parliament as your MP represents your point of view — it’s useful for them to bring in real-world examples to illustrate their arguments.
But if you’re simply writing out of the blue to ask, for example, that your MP ‘does something about the environment’ then it’s hard for them to take an immediate action.
- Making a clear request
Tell your representative what you would like them to do — vote a certain way; bring up a certain point to the relevant minister; or perhaps read a certain article that will inform their opinion.
If you’re asking for personal help, make it clear what you need (or if you’re not sure, just explain the problem in as much factual detail as you can).
Finally
We hope we haven’t made it sound as if you have no hope of receiving a response! Our own research shows that response rates vary from body to body, and from representative to representative*.
So don’t be put off: if you do have a problem or you’d like to raise awareness of an issue to your representative, go to www.writetothem.com where you’ll find it’s a very simple process.
And hopefully, now you’re also very well equipped as to what to do next, if you don’t get a reply.
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* These figures should be taken in context: they represent only people who used WriteToThem to contact their representative, and who completed our survey. It should also be noted that the overall percentage of responses is substantially brought down when you include correspondence to the House of Lords — while we’ve seen that MPs have no legal obligation to reply to the public, they do at least have constituencies and regular opportunities for re-election, where Lords are fair game for anyone to write to, and arguably have less motivation to respond.
