- 844 letters to persons having referred cases, informing them of verifications conducted (682 in 2013), - 649 letters to authorities with which cases were taken up, informing them of actions taken in order to follow-up verifications (606 in 2013), - 484 letters to persons having referred cases, informing them of actions taken in order to follow-up verifications (502 in 2013), - 444 reminder letters (274 in 2013), - 306 letters to persons having referred cases, informing them of reminders issued (189 in 2013), Throughout the year 2014, considerable effort was made to reply to every letter within a shorter space of time. With the same number of staff, the CGLPL thus sent 5,729 letters between January and November 2014, whereas it sent 5,093 for the whole of the year 2013. The CGLPL thus conducted a larger number of verifications with the authorities (+19% for the first eleven months of 2014 as compared with 2013). However, a non-negligible part of its activity was devoted to sending reminder letters to authorities with which cases had been taken up and, if necessary, to the higher authorities above them (+62% for the first eleven months of 2014 as compared with 2013). It should be recalled that article 9-1 of the Act of 26th May 2014, amending the Act of 30th October 2007, provides for the possibility of sending formal notification when requests for information, documents and observations, made in particular within the framework of article 6-1 (cases referred), are not fruitful. The CGLPL has not, to date, made use of this prerogative, giving priority to the establishment of constructive exchanges with the authorities. Moreover, it should be noted that the waiting time for the sending of observations and documents requested is sometimes dependent upon the time required for handling of requests by heads of institutions (the CGLPL has thus been able to identify a few prisons, which on each occasion, only send back responses after one or even two reminders). However, in most cases it depends upon the time required by the established circuit of authority, whether within the Ministry of Justice or the Ministry of the Interior. This waiting time is particularly detrimental to the CGLPL’s action with regard to verifications conducted within the framework of measures of detention of illegal immigrants. Indeed, in view of the deadlines concerning foreign detainees, in most cases the CGLPL immediately sends requests to the heads of detention centres for illegal immigrants by fax, whereas the elements of responses only come back to it from the Private Office of the Minister of the Interior after several weeks. Although this waiting time does not exclude the possibility of the CGLPL making recommendations of a general nature to the authority concerned, it is unable to do so in useful time with regard to the detainee or detainees concerned, when the individual situations submitted to it jeopardise respect for their fundamental rights. The CGLPL therefore recommends that the requested elements should be sent back to it within a deadline enabling it to fully exercise its duties. Time required for Responses (to letters received between 1st January and 30th November 2014) Although in most cases the CGLPL succeeded in replying to persons who approached the institution in 2014 within less than two months (45% of letters handled), reduction of the waiting time remains a permanent objective in view of the problems submitted to it and the different perception that persons deprived of liberty have of the passage of time. 60