Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason the target clearance time for the War Pension scheme was set at 127 days.

127 working days is an Average Clearance Time (ACT) target which begins upon receipt of the claim form and ends when the outcome decision is issued. The ACT caters for cases that take significantly longer to resolve, such as where a Coroner's Inquest is required, and those which can be cleared in much less than 127 working days. The current ACT target reflects the long term performance of the War Pensions Scheme (WPS) and has been confirmed as appropriate until the digitisation and transformation of the WPS is complete in 2023. The WPS ACT target will be fully reviewed at this point.