Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent progress his Department has made on increasing processing times for access to work applications made by disabled people.

Access to Work have recruited more people and redeployed existing colleagues to support the processing of applications. We have also reviewed our processes and looked to streamline, where we can, to speed up decision making. Alongside that, we are continuing to transform the service through digitalisation and aim to introduce an online claims portal and an improved application process in the Spring. Whilst we still have a number of newer colleagues in training, these activities are showing positive results with an improvement in processing times and increases in clearances.