Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether her Department plans to launch the pilot of its integrated assessment service in autumn 2021.

We had started to test a single digital platform in a small number of assessment centres but this was paused due to the impact of COVID-19. We have been reviewing our delivery plans and expect the IT development to form part the work of the new Departmental Transformation Area (DTA). The DTA will provide a safe environment to test, adapt and learn from new ideas and processes before rolling out at a greater scale, and ultimately nationally. The first site in the DTA will be in London and is scheduled to start from April 2021. This approach recognises that our claimants include some of the most vulnerable in society and it is critical that we carefully develop the new integrated health assessment service.