Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average waiting time is for personal independence payment appeal tribunal dates in Middlesbrough constituency; and what steps he is taking to reduce the waiting time.

Information on the average waiting time to a first tribunal hearing is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The Ministry of Justice publish statistics on the mean age of a case at disposal by tribunal venue. This is the average number of weeks from receipt in Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to the final outcome within the period. It will include cases cleared at hearing and cases cleared without a hearing which include strike outs, superseded and withdrawals prior to a hearing. An appeal may not necessarily be cleared at its first hearing.

These statistics are available in the Tribunal Statistics CSV files, Tribunals and Gender Recognition Statistics Quarterly, July to September 2018 (Provisional) publication, available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2018

The Ministry of Justice is in the process of recruiting more judicial office holders in order to increase capacity and help to reduce waiting times for appellants. In the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) jurisdiction, 225 new medical members have already been appointed and 119 disability-qualified members have recently been recruited. The SSCS jurisdiction will also benefit from the fact that 250 fee-paid judges and 100 salaried judges are being recruited across tribunals more widely.

In addition, a new digital service has recently been launched to enable speedier processing of appeals and provide a better service for all parties to the proceedings. Information on the new digital service can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-online-service-launched-for-pip-appeals