Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the performance of Personal Independence Payment assessment providers.

The department closely monitors all aspects of the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment process, including the performance of assessment providers. Provider performance is measured across a range of service level agreements setting out the department's expectations for service delivery, and they are held to account for their performance.

We work continuously with assessment providers to further improve the assessment process. PIP providers have recently introduced new management processes to drive performance across their service. This includes new or enhanced systems for assessing the quality of reports, and any advice the department receives.

Assessment providers always strive to provide an excellent service to our claimants and have consistently exceeded their customer satisfaction target of 90%.