Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Pursglove Excerpts

Monday 11th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Newton]

We work very hard in the DWP to make sure that decisions are made accurately the first time. However, where there have been mistakes, we work really quickly to remedy them as soon as possible. The hon. Gentleman is quite right that we are going through some wide-scale administrative exercises on both employment and support allowance and PIP, and I regularly provide written ministerial statements to the House—the most recent ones were in December—setting out exactly what we are doing.

[Tom Pursglove (Corby) (Con)]

23. What steps is the Department taking to improve the general assessment process and the oversight of individual assessors to reduce the rate of cases going to appeal?

[Sarah Newton]

It is absolutely right that we should be focused on making the right decision first time. We have had independent reviews of both the work capability assessment and the PIP assessments, and we are working rigorously to implement each of the steps that have been identified.