Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government takes to monitor the quality of assessments provided by (a) Centre for Health and Disability Assessments and (b) Independent Assessment Services; and if her Department will mandate the routine recording of assessments for quality purposes.

The Department robustly monitors the performance of contracted suppliers and assessments are independently audited to ensure that the advice provided to the Department’s decision makers is of suitable quality, fully explained and justified. Assessment reports deemed unacceptable are returned to the provider for reworking. We continue to work extensively with our assessment providers to make improvements to guidance and training to ensure a quality service is maintained.

Every person who attends a PIP/ESA assessment can record their assessment if they want to. The Department has set standards for the recordings to make sure that the system is fair and accurately reflects the assessment. We have started to look at the costs and benefits of routinely recording assessments, however the Department has no current plans to mandate these as we believe that this should be driven by claimant choice.