Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken is for a decision to be made for a personal independence payment claim in (a) Airdrie and Shotts constituency, (b) Scotland and (c) England.

The table below shows the average (median) actual clearance times (AACT), in weeks, for normal rules new claims and DLA reassessments to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) for Airdie and Shotts, Scotland and England in April 2016.

Source – PIP Computer Systems management information.

Notes to table:

1) The figures are for normal rules only, and do not include special rules for the terminally ill, as these claims have a separate and faster route through the claims process.

2) ‘Time take for a decision’ has been interpreted as the average time between the date of referral to the assessment provider and the date of the DWP decision to either award or disallow the claim. It does not include claims that were withdrawn by the claimant or claims that were disallowed by DWP pre-referral to the Assessment Providers (e.g. for failure to meet basic eligibility criteria or failure to return the Part 2 form within the time limit).

3) Figures have been rounded to the nearest whole number of weeks.

Further information on AACTs is published and available at;

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-independence-payment-statistics