A BEMUSED Mike Foster could not understand why he was closer to the bottom than top of a league table of how long MPs take to respond to their constituents' concerns.

Mike thought he had been quick off the mark in getting back to people who contacted him through a volunteer-run organisation, Faxyourmp.com. But research newly published on the website gave him a record of only replying to 22 per cent of faxes within 14 days.

Mike set about finding out what was wrong, and immediately turned his thoughts to the usual explanation. There are two Michael Foster MPs and the website had failed to point this out.

Yet it appeared they had noticed. There at the top of the list was Michael J. Foster - the official Parliamentary title of Mike's namesake. Much lower down was plain old Michael Foster, the title Worcester's version is given to avoid confusion on Westminster order papers.

Puzzled, but determined, Mike battled on. And he discovered (and stay with me on this), that Faxyourmp.com were playing by the wrong rules. You see, both men have a middle name beginning with 'J' - John for Worcester and Jabez for Hastings - but the Parliamentary authorities picked Jabez as the one to keep the extra letter.

Faxyourmp.com went the other way, so it turned out our Mike could boast a record of replying to 93 per cent within two weeks. He said: "We have been mixed up many times before, but not in this way. I thought I had been quicker than 22 per cent.

"The website studied more than 8,000 faxes sent to 572 out of Britain's 659 MPs over a five-month period. Between May and September, it forwarded queries on behalf of members of the public, either to a traditional fax machine or converted into email.

Mid Worcestershire's Peter Luff - who was contacted by 11 constituents - was one of 50 MPs who scored 100 per cent. West Worcestershire's Sir Michael Spicer, who is chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee of Tory MPs, responded to 83 per cent of the 12 faxes he received within two weeks. Leominster's Bill Wiggin replied to 80 per cent of the 10 faxes he was sent within the time limit.

And Bromsgrove's Julie Kirkbride hit the mark with 79 per cent of the 14 faxes she was sent. Redditch's Jacqui Smith, the Health Minister, was sent six faxes and responded to 67 per cent within 14 days.

Independent Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor scored 60 per cent from five faxes. Liberal Democrat Paul Keeth, MP for Hereford, got nine per cent from 11 faxes. This was worse than Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was given a mark of 44 per cent, although the website admitted that he often received correspondence from non-constituents.

But it was better than Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith and former Cabinet minister Peter Mandelson, who were among 26 MPs who failed to reply to a single fax within 14 days.

A spokesman for the website said: "Parliament is probably the only large taxpayer-funded organisation whose performance is not measured and published. We're trying to fix this curious anomaly.

"The majority of MPs respond promptly and diligently to the needs and views of their constituents. They deserve credit and respect for their conscientiousness."