Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what measures are in place to monitor how accurately health professionals capture information that explains the functional effect of the claimant's reported conditions during personal independence payments and employment and support allowance assessments.

The Department has a relentless focus on quality and consistency. The Health Care Assessment Providers have on-going assessment quality improvement plans in place, which include clinical observations, internal audit of assessment reports and tailored training and development tools. These plans are closely monitored by the Department through rigorous performance management arrangements and the requirement for quality assessment reports is assessed through an independent audit, with feedback provided to the provider. These measures monitor how accurately Healthcare Professionals capture information on the functional impact of the claimant’s reported conditions at both Personal Independence Payment and Work Capability Assessments.