Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will introduce the mandatory recording of capability assessments for employment and support allowance and personal independence payments.

There are no plans to introduce the mandatory recordings of assessments for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Personal Independence Payments (PIP).

Whilst there is no legal need to record assessments, claimants can request in advance that their ESA assessment is recorded. This is explained to claimants in the letter inviting them to their face-to-face assessment.

On 13 March a small-scale pilot started to test whether there are any benefits to audio recording PIP face-to-face assessments. Once the results of this pilot have been processed and evaluated, we will be able to make further decisions on whether DWP will consider recording PIP assessments in the future.

However, assessment recording will always be entirely voluntary and subject to claimant consent.