NICNAS responded to 5289 (compared to 7735 in 2005-06 and 2909 in 2004-05) public enquiries during the year. These took 1195.7 (1965.35 in 2005-06 and 1356 in 2004-05) hours to handle. This was made up of 4044 telephone enquiries and 1245 written enquiries, as indicated in Table 19.

This represents a levelling out in public enquiries following the 2005-06 peak. For full details on public enquiries to NICNAS see Appendix 11.

Table 19: Number of enquiries (telephone and written) and hours spent in response over three years

		2004-05		2005-06		2006-07
		Total number	Total hours spent	Total number	Total hours spent	Total number	Total hours spent
Telephone	Compliance	451	98.73	1937	345.60	1421	169.78
	Data team / other			58	13.00	14	7.45
	General			7	1.05	19	4.0
	New Chems	949	272.05	723	213.70	906	202.62
	PEC	182	125.85	366	133.90	233	109.92
	Registration	447	186.40	2250	265.15	1451	162.38
	Total	2029	683.03	5341	972.40	4044	656.15
Written	Compliance	23	13.25	867	231.85	700	119.41
	Data team / other			80	12.40	1	0.1
	General					9	2.25
	New Chems	557	305.30	422	217.20	371	259.1
	PEC	212	314.10	314	385.95	105	143.54
	Registration	88	40.10	711	145.60	59	15.1
	Total	880	672.70	2394	992.95	1245	539.5
Total		2909	1355.73	7735	1965.35	5289	1195.65