Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the time taken to (a) recruit and (b) train 3,000 additional staff in fraud and error.

Currently the time taken from the job advert being created to the individual being onboarded is between 7 to 20 weeks. Training time varies by function with the majority of new staff needing three to six months to fully consolidate learning, whereas special investigator roles can require up to 18 months – although these only make up a small proportion of the 3,000 specified.