Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to make audio visual recording facilities available for personal independence payment and employment and support allowance assessments.

As part of our commitment to improve the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment process we have been progressing options to video record PIP face-to-face assessments. Over the summer we gathered views on video recording from claimants, representative bodies and from Health Professionals in order to inform a live testing pilot later in the year, which will inform wider rollout decisions.

Providing they give advance notice, claimants of Employment and Support Allowance and Universal Credit can already ask for their assessment to be audio recorded and equipment will be provided. Claimants may also use their own equipment provided they meet certain conditions required by DWP.