Timms Review: Interim Report

Debate between Stephen Timms and Patricia Ferguson

Thursday 9th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Sir Stephen Timms]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for his invitation. If he would like to drop me a line, I will see how my diary is looking in the next couple of months.

[Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow West) (Lab)]

I thank the Minister for his statement today and for all the hard work that has gone into getting us to where we are now. The interim report finds very low levels of trust in the legacy scheme that we inherited from the Conservatives. How will the Minister go about rebuilding that trust not only with disabled people and people with long-term conditions, but with the general public, to ensure that there is the understanding and respect that we all think should be part of the system?

[Sir Stephen Timms]

The key first step is to complete this review in co-production with disabled people and disabled people’s organisations, and we will be doing that. Then I think it is a question of people seeing what the new system will be and observing in due course how it works. I hope that in that way we can rebuild trust and confidence in the system on the part of both disabled people and taxpayers—recognising the point made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) that there is a big overlap between those two categories.