Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average waiting time for a case to be heard at a Personal Independence Payment tribunal is in (a) England, (b) Tees Valley Combined Authority area and (c) Stockton North constituency.

Information about waiting times for appeals in the First-tier Tribunal (Social Security and Child Support) (SSCS) is published at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.

Waiting times are calculated from receipt of an appeal to its final disposal. An appeal is not necessarily disposed of at its first hearing. The final disposal decision on the appeal may be reached after an earlier hearing had been adjourned (which may be directed by the judge for a variety of reasons, such as to seek further evidence), or after an earlier hearing date had been postponed (again, for a variety of reasons, often at the request of the appellant). An appeal may also have been decided at an earlier date by SSCS, only for the case to have gone on to the Upper Tribunal, to be returned once again to the First-tier, for its final disposal.

Waiting times can fluctuate temporarily and geographically, owing to a number of factors, including volumes of benefit decisions made locally, availability of medical/disability members, venue capacity and the complexity of the issue in dispute. Any disparity in waiting times is monitored and investigated locally.