Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how long the average wait for an assessment for a personal independence payment was on the latest date for which figures are available.

The wait for an assessment faced by some claimants is unacceptable. We are committed to putting that right by clearing backlogs and improving processing times.

We intend to publish statistics on the time taken to clear cases in the near future and my analysts are considering what information the publication will include. We will pre-announce the publication in due course, in line with the UK Statistics Authority code of practice.