Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how the actual cost of the implementation of the automated identification process in universal credit compared to estimate of £7.35 million, as stated in evidence to the court in the Johnson litigation.

The Court of Appeal case was based on our understanding of the High Court’s decision with regards to the interpretation of Regulation 54. The Court of Appeal disagreed with the High Court’s interpretation of Regulation 54 and replaced it with a judgment of much narrower scope which was capable of implementation.

Costs are not readily identifiable for the implementation of the automated identification process as teams work in an agile way, and make a number of changes to specific parts of the system.