Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publish the terms of reference for her Department’s quality assurance framework; and what steps she is taking to ensure that framework is adhered to when responding to correspondence from hon. Members.

The Department for Work and Pensions follows the Cabinet Office Guide to Handling Correspondence. This guidance is published on Gov.uk and sets out how all departments should respond to correspondence from hon members.

Drafters receive ongoing training, and each response is quality assured by a correspondence manager before being sent to Minister. The department aims to respond to correspondence within 20 working days.

The Cabinet Office publishes statistics on Departmental performance which can be found on the gov.uk website and can be viewed here.