Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of the closure of his Department's processing and contact centre in Bootle Linacre on the response times for caseload in the local area.

The planned changes at Linacre House, Bootle will help us to deliver better services in the future as well as reduce the amount we spend on leasing buildings. We have looked at how we can rationalise the work, whilst ensuring that we do not diminish our service or lose any knowledge and experience.

We will transfer the work and processing colleagues to St Martins House, Bootle. The services undertaken at Linacre House are not specifically linked to claims made by people in the surrounding area and is part of a national network of processing sites. We do not anticipate any impact on the service to claimants in the local area as a result of these changes.