Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the letter from the hon. Member for Edinburgh East of 14 January 2019 and response from the Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, of 12 March 2019, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of implementing a moratorium on benefits assessments for individuals involved in the Infected Blood Inquiry for the duration of that inquiry.

It is important that claimants are reassessed at appropriate intervals to ensure that their benefit entitlement is correct, as a person’s health condition and its impact on their capacity to work can change.

The Department does not therefore consider it appropriate to suspend assessments for individuals involved in the Infected Blood Inquiry for the duration of that Inquiry.