Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of establishing an alternative disputes resolution process for people affected by changes in state pension age for women.

The equalisation of State Pension age has been the policy of successive governments dating back to 1995.

The Ombudsman’s investigation is ongoing and section 7(2) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 states that Ombudsman investigations “shall be conducted in private”. This is a multi-staged process, and the Ombudsman has not given his final findings on the investigation. We are cooperating with the Ombudsman’s investigation.