Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take (a) steps to recruit additional (i) judges and (ii) panel members and (b) other such steps to reduce the waiting time for personal independence payment appeal hearings at the Birmingham social security and child support tribunal.

In order to respond to a general increase in appeal receipts, HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has been working with the Tribunal’s judiciary both to appoint additional judges and panel members, and to take forward initiatives with the potential to increase the capacity and performance of the Tribunal. The Tribunal panel hearing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) appeals is constituted of a judge, a medical member, and a disability qualified tribunal member. HMCTS has recently recruited 250 judges across the First-tier Tribunal; up to 125 disability-qualified members; and 226 medical members.

Of these, to date, five judges; 19 medical members; and seven disability-qualified members, have been assigned to sit in the Birmingham Social Security and Child Support Tribunal.

We are also reviewing - with the Tribunal’s judiciary - current listing practices to increase the number of cases listed on a Tribunal session.

Waiting times are calculated from receipt of the 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 the First-tier Tribunal, 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.

We are very sensitive to the needs of people waiting for Tribunal hearings with a wide range of physical and mental challenges. Tribunal staff, and judicial office holders, are trained accordingly, with HMCTS providing reasonable adjustments to give customers with disabilities equal access to information and services. Information on the HMCTS equality and diversity policy and handling of requests for reasonable adjustments is published on Gov.uk.

If an expedited hearing is sought, or if the Tribunal identifies a case which may benefit from an expedited hearing, a judge (or caseworker acting under delegated powers and then within 14 days subject to an automatic right to be placed before a judge) will make a case management decision on the issue taking into account all the circumstances known about the case. Such decisions may be revised on application and are subject to appeal if an error of law is made.

Latest figures indicate that since PIP was introduced, more than 3.1 million decisions have been made, and of these under 9% have been appealed and 4% have been overturned.