Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data their Department holds on the average response time to enquiries by Members; and what assessment they have made of the adequacy of that response time.

The Department follows the Cabinet Office guidance on correspondence and aims to reply to members within 20 working days. However, there may be occasions where it is not possible to do so (for example, in complex cases). In these circumstances the Department aims to responded as quickly as possible.

The Cabinet Office publishes statistics on Departmental performance which are published on the gov.uk website and can be viewed here.