Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government to what percentage of Social Security and Child Support Tribunal hearings the Department for Work and Pensions sent a presenting officer in (1) 2020–21, (2) 2021–22, (3) 2022–23, and (4) 2023–24.

The percentage of hearings for Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) which were attended by a Presenting Officer (PO) can be found in Table 1 below.

Table 1: Proportion of tribunal hearings for selected Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) benefits which were attended by a DWP Presenting Officer

Source: HMCTS administrative data shared with DWP

Notes:

• Figures include tribunal hearings in all HMCTS regions including Scotland and therefore include appeals relating to PIP claims of Scottish residents. PIP has been devolved to Scotland since April 2020 and existing claims are currently being moved to the Scottish replacement benefit Adult Disability Payment.
• Where information about PO attendance was missing, this was counted as a hearing not attended by a PO.
• Figures for 2020/21 were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, as POs were redeployed to other business critical areas during that time.
• This data is unpublished data. It should be used with caution and it may be subject to future revision.

Figures could not be provided for SSCS benefits other than PIP and ESA because the administrative data held by the department is not robust enough to answer the question.