Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time taken was for her Department to undertake a mandatory reconsideration of its decision to refuse employment and support allowance in each year since 2013.

Statistics on Employment and Support Allowance Work Capability Assessment (WCA) Mandatory Reconsideration (MR) clearance times by reason for raising an MR are published quarterly and can be found at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/

The relevant table is: ESA Work Capability Assessments – Mandatory Reconsideration Clearances – Table 4, Median Clearance Times by Date of Decision.

Guidance for users is available at:

https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/webapi/online-help/Getting-Started.html

The MR average clearance times is derived using calendar days by calculating the median of the time taken from the date the Benefit Centre (BC) has decided the MR to be valid, having considered any new information, until the date the decision is cleared by the decision maker at the Dispute Resolution Team (DRT).