Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent progress his Department has made on reducing the time taken to provide a substantive response to casework enquiries from Members of Parliament.

Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department recognises that response times to casework enquiries from Members of Parliament have been impacted by increased volumes and the complexity of cases requiring detailed investigation.

To address this, the Department has deployed additional resources to complaints and correspondence teams, prioritised the reduction of backlogs, strengthened performance monitoring, introduced enhanced senior oversight, and improved case management processes to support faster and more consistent responses.

As a result of these measures, the Department has begun to reduce outstanding backlogs and increase case-handling capacity, helping to improve response times for hon. Members.

Where a complaint requires formal investigation, the Department aims to provide a full response within 15 working days. More complex cases may take longer, but customers are kept informed of progress and expected timescales.

The Department is committed to ensuring that hon. Members receive timely and accurate information on behalf of their constituents and is taking urgent action to restore performance to expected standards.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman will consider previous cases of inadequate conduct by landlords when making decisions on complaints.

Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

The Private Rented Sector Landlord Ombudsman will resolve tenant complaints about their landlords’ actions or behaviours. The purpose of Ombudsman redress is to provide fair, independent resolution of complaints and ensure that an individual making a complaint is appropriately remedied when things go wrong.

The Ombudsman will have the discretion to consider the individual circumstances of each complaint, based on the evidence provided by parties involved. This could include where evidence is provided of landlords' repeated poor conduct.

However, redress is not designed to 'punish' landlords. Local councils have a wide range of enforcement powers to tackle landlords who flout the rules and don’t keep their properties in an acceptable condition. We expect councils to take a proactive approach to enforcement in the private rented sector and give this the priority it deserves.

Parthenon Sculptures

Prohibiting Members of Parliament from having paid second jobs

Amnesty International UK report on the anti-rights movement in the UK

Richard Pengelly

Found: in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Marie Goldman Mary Glindon

Found: Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Alberto Costa Marie Goldman Mary Glindon

Found: Smith (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Marie Goldman Mary Glindon

Found: ND42] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Mary Glindon

Found: ] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bambos Charalambous Alberto Costa Mary Glindon

Found: Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Alberto Costa Marie Goldman Mary Glindon

Found: Bob Blackman (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bambos Charalambous Marie Goldman Mary Glindon

Found: Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Marie Goldman Carolyn Harris Mary Glindon

Found: present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Marie Goldman Mary Glindon

Found: in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Carolyn Harris Mary Glindon

Found: Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Alberto Costa Marie Goldman Mary Glindon

Found: 5 [ND38] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Marie Goldman Mary Glindon

Found: in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Carolyn Harris Mary Glindon

Found: present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Carolyn Harris Mary Glindon

Found: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Mary Glindon

Found: Committee Room 16 [ND33] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bambos Charalambous Mary Glindon

Found: Smith (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Alberto Costa Mary Glindon

Found: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Mary Glindon

Found: present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Mary Glindon

Found: Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Apologies: Bambos Charalambous, Alberto Costa, Mary Glindon

Found: in the Chair) Bob Blackman Alex Barros-Curtis Bambos Charalambous Alberto Costa Mary Glindon

Found: present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Alex Barros-Curtis Bambos Charalambous Mary Glindon

Found: ND22] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Alex Barros-Curtis Mary Glindon

Found: Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Alex Barros-Curtis Bambos Charalambous Alberto Costa Mary Glindon

Found: : Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Alberto Costa Mary Glindon

Found: Room 5 [ND25] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bambos Charalambous Mary Glindon

Found: Charalambous Alberto Costa Tessa Munt Kirsteen Sullivan Apologies: Bob Blackman, Mary Glindon

Found: Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bambos Charalambous Alex Barros-Curtis Mary Glindon

Found: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Alex Barros-Curtis Bambos Charalambous Mary Glindon

Found: Committee Room 13 [ND13] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Mary Glindon

Found: Carolyn Harris Navendu Mishra Tessa Munt Max Wilkinson Apologies: Alberto Costa, Mary Glindon

Found: Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Alberto Costa Mary Glindon

Found: ND14] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Mary Glindon

Found: ND15] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Bambos Charalambous Mary Glindon

Found: ND10] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Mary Glindon

Found: ND09] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Alex Barros-Curtis Bob Blackman Mary Glindon

Found: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Alberto Costa Bob Blackman Gill Furniss Carolyn Harris Mary Glindon

Found: Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Alex Barros-Curtis Gill Furniss Mary Glindon

Found: Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Bob Blackman Gill Furniss Carolyn Harris Mary Glindon

Found: [ND02] Members present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Mr Alex Barros- Curtis Bob Blackman Mary Glindon

Found: Smith (in the Chair) Mr Alex Barros- Curtis Bob Blackman Alberto Costa Gill Furniss Mary Glindon

Found: present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Mr Alex Barros- Curtis Bob Blackman Alberto Costa Mary Glindon

Found: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Alberto Costa Bob Blackman Gill Furniss Carolyn Harris Mary Glindon

Found: present: Nick Smith (in the Chair) Mr Alex Barros- Curtis Bob Blackman Gill Furniss Mary Glindon

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Bob Blackman (Chair); Jonathan Davies; Mary Glindon; Alison Hume;

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Nick Smith (Chair); Bambos Charalambous; Mary Glindon; Marie Goldman

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Bob Blackman (Chair); Jonathan Davies; Mary Glindon; Will Stone;