In 2012, 5053 people asked for my help with casework issues. This was up from 4300 in 2011.  I held 35 advice surgeries and a total of 1285 people attended one of my advice surgeries. Over the last year, 1744 people contacted me for the first time to ask for my help with casework issues. 65% of requests came via email, 30% attended surgery and 5% sent letters, faxes and telephoned. On average, I responded to casework enquiries within 9 working days.