Sheila Gilmore – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sheila Gilmore on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average length of time taken for decisions on requests for reconsideration of fit for work decisions in relation to applications for employment and support allowance has been since October 2013.

Mike Penning

The Department is collecting information to understand how the introduction of mandatory reconsideration is operating, including completion timescales. However, this data is not sufficiently robust and reliable to make available.

In the production of new statistics, which all the above would be, the Department works to guidelines set by the UK Statistics Authority to ensure we are able to publish statistics that meet the high quality standards expected. Departmental statisticians need to assure themselves of the quality of administrative data sources before releasing information as Official statistics, and before the exact timing and format of statistics can be confirmed. .