Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's response to the Work Capability Assessment: Activities and Descriptors Consultation, published in November 2023, what his planned timetable is for publishing an equality impact assessment on proposals for changes to the eligibility criteria for the (a) Limited Capability for Work and Limited Capability for Work and Work-Related Activity categories within universal credit and (b) Work-Related Activity Group and Support Group within Employment Support Allowance.

We published our response to the consultation on changes to the Work Capability Assessment criteria on 22 November, having carefully considered feedback from disabled people, and people with health conditions, as well as the organisations that represent and support them.

The consultation was open from 5 September to 30 October 2023. This gave ample time for people to share their views. We undertook extensive engagement during the consultation period and received over 1,300 responses. We listened carefully to what people told us and took their views into account when deciding about which changes to take forward.

We also did a lot of work to make sure disabled people could share their views. We provided the consultation document in a range of accessible formats, including large print, Easy Read, Braille, Audio, BSL and hard copy versions. We ran a programme of in-person and virtual public events, so that people could share their views verbally and offered a range of methods to enable people to respond in writing, including online, by email or by post.

We will publish an Impact Assessment in due course.

The OBR have said that they expect these changes to mean that 371,000 fewer people will be declared as having Limited Capability for Work Related Activity by 2028/29 than otherwise would be the case. HMT have published the impacts in their policy costing note that accompanies the Autumn Statement.