Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2018 to Question 146989 on Independent Case Examiner, whether his Department has performance measures for the time taken to conclude investigations into complaints escalated to the Independent Case Examiner (ICE); and what steps are being taken to reduce the time taken for the ICE to make a decision.

The performance measures for the Independent Case Examiner’s Office and their achievement against those measures are published on their Gov.UK webpage. In recognition of the demand-led nature of the service provided by the Office, there is no performance measure for the time complaints wait to be brought into investigation. The Office has been allocated additional resource for the 2018/19 reporting year which should improve overall waiting times.