Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the average time taken by his Department to respond to freedom of information requests in the 2022-23 financial year.

The Department takes its compliance with the Freedom of Information Act and Cabinet Office Code of Practice very seriously and keeps its approach under constant review.

Official National Statistics on FOI performance for all central government departments and other monitored bodies can be found on Gov.UK here.

The latest official DWP FOI performance statistics available cover Quarter 1 2023 (January – March) and show that the DWP responded to 98% of all FOIs requests within the statutory 20 working day limit.

For 2022 our annual statistics show that DWP managed to respond to 98% of FOI requests within the statutory 20 working day limit.

The Department’s response times are above the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) 90% compliance threshold.