Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are currently awaiting work capability assessments.

The latest available data, February 2015, shows that there were 477,985 people awaiting their Work Capability Assessment. This compares with 766,368 people waiting for an assessment in February 2014, a reduction of 37%.

These figures do not include cases yet to be referred to the Health Assessment Advisory Service or cases referred where the claimant has yet to return the claimant questionnaire.

Centre for Health and Disability Assessments plan on recruiting and retaining more high quality healthcare professionals which will lead to people being assessed quickly and further reduce waiting times.