Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what are the current average wait times for Special Educational Need and Disability oral hearings within the HM Courts and Tribunals Service.

The current waiting time for a final oral hearing in a Special Educational Needs and Disability appeal is 84 weeks.

The time taken to complete a Special Educational Needs and Disability appeal after an order for determination on the papers is set by the judiciary according to the circumstances of each case. Establishing an average would require a manual review of every case and could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The average wait for a call to the SEND helpline to be answered is approximately two minutes (1 minute 56 seconds). The current longest response time for written correspondence, including emails and letters, is eight days.