Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people claiming benefits under special rules with a form SR1 have been claiming for (a) more than 12 months and (b) less than 12 months.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department supports people nearing the end of life through special benefit rules – called the Special Rules for End of Life (SREL). These enable people who are nearing the end of their lives to get faster, easier access to certain benefits, without needing to attend a medical assessment, serve waiting periods and in most cases, receive the highest rate of benefit.
SREL applies to these benefits Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Universal Credit (UC), Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Disability Living Allowance for children (DLAc) and Attendance Allowance (AA).
The department holds some data on special rules for end of life (SREL) claims for PIP and UC based on receipt of the medical evidence form, the SR1, but does not centrally collate equivalent data on SREL claims for AA, DLA and ESA, so we cannot provide the total number of SREL claimants. We have therefore provided data for UC and PIP only below.
Benefit* | Claim duration less than 12 months | Claim duration of 12 months or more. | Total |
PIP | 16,900 | 15,400 | 32,300 |
UC | 5,900 | 4,800 | 10,700 |
*All figures are rounded to the nearest hundred.
The PIP data covers England and Wales and is from October 2024. The UC data covers Great Britain and is from September 2024.
The numbers above count the number of claims for each benefit, not the number of individuals. Some individuals may be counted more than once, as they may be in receipt of both benefits.
It is possible, although rare, to make a SREL claim without a SR1 form, so these data do not necessarily present the full picture in terms of total numbers of SREL claims.
‘DLA: Cases in Payment - Data from May 2018’ and ‘AA: Cases in Payment - Data from May 2018’ data is available on Stat-Xplore by ‘Main Disabling Condition’, this includes ‘Terminally Ill’ claims. This data is available by ‘Duration of Current Claim’. ESA - Data from May 2018 is available on Stat-Xplore by ‘Medical condition’ which includes ‘Neoplasms’. This data is available by ‘Duration of Current Claim’. A claimant’s main disabling condition being ‘Terminally Ill’ does not necessarily mean they are classed as an SREL claimant. Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many bilateral mastectomies for gender dysphoria funded by the NHS were performed on patients (a) over 18 years old, (b) under 18 years old and (c) in total in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department does not hold this data centrally. This information is held at individual National Health Service provider level.
NHS Children and Young People’s Gender Services, which delivers care for those who are under 18, do not make referrals for surgical interventions.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) her Department, (b) herself and (c) her ministerial team have not received a substantive response in each month since August 2024.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The total number of cases received by the department since August 2024 that are due for reply but have yet to receive a substantive response is 31.
The breakdown is as follows:
Parliamentary cases that have not yet had a substantive reply | ||||||
Month Received | Secretary of State for Education | Ministerial Team | Department | |||
| Volume | % | Volume | % | Volume | % |
August 2024 | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% |
September 2024 | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% |
October 2024 | 1 | 2.0% | 0 | 0.0% | 1 | 0.2% |
November 2024 | 1 | 1.8% | 3 | 0.5% | 4 | 0.7% |
December 2024 | 3 | 6.7% | 12 | 2.2% | 15 | 2.5% |
January 2025 | 1 | 4.8% | 10 | 5.6% | 11 | 5.6% |
Total | 6 | 2.0% | 25 | 0.9% | 31 | 1.0% |
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) his Department, (b) himself and (c) his ministerial team have not received a substantive response in each month since August 2024.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to meeting the target of responding to at least 80% of correspondence from Hon. Members within 20 working days. Parliament has a right to hold ministers to account. The Leader of the House of Commons wrote to all Cabinet members in November to remind ministers of their responsibilities to provide helpful and timely responses to Members' Parliamentary Questions and correspondence.
The Department receives some of the highest, and most sensitive, volumes of correspondence. In 2024 alone we received over 65,000 queries, with over 15,000 of those from Hon. Members. Ministerial correspondence performance data by Department is published annually by the Cabinet Office on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) her Department, (b) her and (c) her Ministers in each month since August 2024 have not yet received a substantive response.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Since August 2024, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has received 3493 pieces of correspondence from Parliamentarians. The table below shows the number of items received by month (August 2024 – February 2025) that have not yet received a substantive response, and the proportion this represents of the total number of cases responded to, by month. The majority of cases from January – February are not yet due.
| Aug-24 | Sept-24 | Oct-24 | Nov-24 | Dec-24 | Jan-25 | Feb-25* | Total |
Total | 0 | 7 | 10 | 22 | 117 | 399 | 82 | 637 |
Proportion | 0% | 1% | 1.5% | 3.5% | 22% | 60% | 100% | 18% |
* February data is captured up until 6th February 2025
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) her Department, (b) her and (c) her Ministers in each month since August 2024 have not yet received a substantive response.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
In line with Cabinet Office guidance, HM Treasury aims to respond to ministerial correspondence from parliamentarians within 20 working days. Correspondence performance data is published within HM Treasury’s Annual Report and Accounts. The 2023-24 Report noted that 62% of replies to parliamentarians were answered within the timeframe.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) her Department, (b) herself and (c) her ministerial team have not received a substantive response in each month since August 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not keep this information centrally and therefore it is not readily available. Providing the information that the Department does hold would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) her Department, (b) herself and (c) her ministerial team have not received a substantive response in each month since August 2024.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
On policy correspondence cases that have not yet received a substantive response for each month since August 2024 are in the following table.
Month | Total received | Total Outstanding | Home Secretary response | Other Ministerial response | % outstanding |
August 2024 | 538 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
September 2024 | 472 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.2% |
October 2024 | 606 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0.8% |
November 2024 | 625 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 1.3% |
December 2024 | 541 | 69 | 3 | 66 | 12.8% |
Total | 2782 | 83 | 4 | 79 | 3% |
Data about intake and performance in answering MP Correspondence on case specific matters (including UK Visa and Immigration, Immigration Enforcement, Border Force and HM Passport Office) is published quarterly with the latest data available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-q3-2024
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) her Department, (b) her and (c) her Ministers in each month since August 2024 have not yet received a substantive response.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
For the months of August and September all correspondence from Parliamentarians have received a substantive response. The table below covers October-January.
Month | Outstanding | Percentage |
October | 6 | 1.5% |
November | 9 | 2.5% |
December | 58 | 19.5% |
*January *Many of these cases remain within Cabinet Office target of 20 working days. | 255 | 67.5% |
These figures reflect correspondence sent directly to MoJ HQ from Parliamentarians, and do not include correspondence sent directly to its executive agencies such as HMCTS or HMPPS.
Ministers and the Department place great value on effective and timely handling of ministerial correspondence and keep performance of this under review.
The Cabinet Office publishes routine statistics on Departmental performance which can be found on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers(opens in a new tab).
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) his Department, (b) him and (c) his Ministers in each month since August 2024 have not yet received a substantive response.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government attaches significant importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from MPs, either directly or on behalf of their constituents. The Department’s correspondence team has already implemented an improvement plan that will deliver a more effective and streamlined process.
The correspondence performance of all Whitehall Departments is published quarterly. The full data for 2024 is due to be published soon by the Cabinet Office. Data for Quarter 1 of 2025 will be published in due course.