Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's publication entitled DWP statistical FOI releases, published on 16 November 2017, whether he plans to publish new figures for his Department's FOI releases.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department has an established programme of publication and publishes a large amount of data per year. Overall, the Department complies with the FOI Act and the Cabinet Office Code of Practice and will keep under consideration its approach to process and publication of information. However, it is not a requirement to publish all FOI responses.

You may be interested to know that all FOI requests that are submitted by the ‘WhatDoTheyKnow.com’ website are automatically published on that website.

The Departments figures for FOI releases are published by the Cabinet Office on a quarterly and annual basis and they can be accessed here.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the average time taken by his Department to respond to freedom of information requests in the 2022-23 financial year.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department takes its compliance with the Freedom of Information Act and Cabinet Office Code of Practice very seriously and keeps its approach under constant review.

Official National Statistics on FOI performance for all central government departments and other monitored bodies can be found on Gov.UK here.

The latest official DWP FOI performance statistics available cover Quarter 1 2023 (January – March) and show that the DWP responded to 98% of all FOIs requests within the statutory 20 working day limit.

For 2022 our annual statistics show that DWP managed to respond to 98% of FOI requests within the statutory 20 working day limit.

The Department’s response times are above the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) 90% compliance threshold.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps their Department is taking to improve the response time to FOI requests.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department takes its compliance with the Freedom of Information Act and Cabinet Office Code of Practice very seriously and keeps its approach under constant review.

Official National Statistics on FOI performance for all central government departments and other monitored bodies can be found on Gov.UK here.

The latest official DWP FOI performance statistics available cover Quarter 1 2023 (January – March) and show that the DWP responded to 98% of all FOIs requests within the statutory 20 working day limit.

For 2022 our annual statistics show that DWP managed to respond to 98% of FOI requests within the statutory 20 working day limit.

The Department’s response times are above the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) 90% compliance threshold.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2023 to Question 131311 and the Answer of 3 February 2023 to Question 136734 on Department for Work and Pensions: Freedom of Information, if he will make an assessment of the compatibility of his Department's freedom of information process with (a) his Department's Publication Scheme and (b) the Cabinet Office Freedom of Information Code of Practice; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department has an established programme of publication and publishes a large amount of data per year. The department currently releases around 40 Official and National statistics series each year, as well as collaborating to support a number of cross-government publications.

The Department complies with the overall intent of FOI Act and the Cabinet Office Code of Practice and keeps under consideration its approach to process and publication of information.

As mentioned in response to Question 131311, many Freedom of Information responses are automatically put in the public domain by the WhatDoTheyKnow website making them freely available to everyone.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2023 to Question 131311 on Department for Work and Pensions: Freedom of Information, on what day the decision to cease publishing Freedom of Information responses was made.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No explicit decision has ever been made. This was simply a change in process that occurred naturally over time.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reason his Department has not updated its web page on Collection: DWP statistical FOI releases since 2017.

Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Department takes its obligations under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act very seriously. However, it is not a requirement to publish FOI responses.

All FOI requests that are submitted via WhatDoTheyKnow.com, automatically have their responses published on that site.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, with reference to the Answers of 7 April 2022 to Question 147025 and 26 April 2022 to Question 156349, on Department for Work and Pensions: Freedom of Information, if she will instruct the Government Legal Service to undertake an assessment of the basis for the Department for Work and Pensions' decision to withhold publication of the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit’s report on the experiences of vulnerable people who have been claiming Universal Credit.

Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice

No investigation will be carried out by the Government Legal Profession.

If a person making a request under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) is not satisfied with a response, they may exercise their statutory rights of challenge under the Act, complaining to the ICO and then appealing to the First-tier Tribunal.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 April 2022 to Question 147025, if she will refer her Department’s decision to withhold the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit’s report in 2019 on the experiences of vulnerable people claiming Universal Credit from publication under section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act to the Government Legal Service for advice.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

We do not intend to refer this to the Government Legal Service.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 April 2022 to Question 147025, which Minster took the decision to withhold the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit’s report in 2019; and on what date was that decision taken.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Minister that authorised Section 36 was the Minister for the Lords. The decision was taken on 24 September 2021.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department received advice from the Government Legal Service on the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit report into the effectiveness of support for vulnerable people claiming Universal Credit and the cover report to it that went to the UC Programme Board in October 2019 should be withheld from publication on the basis of section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act (prejudice to the effective conduct of public affairs).

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Department has not received advice from the Government Legal Service related to this request. Engaging section 36 of the Freedom of Information Act requires that a ‘qualified person’ agrees that, on balance, it is in the public interest to withhold the information from publication.

Found: England; Privy Council Office; Serious Fraud Office; Tate; Department for Transport; Welsh Government; Department

Found: England; Privy Council Office; Serious Fraud Office; Tate; Department for Transport; Welsh Government; Department