Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to ensure that the Timms Review includes workstreams on the potential impact of (a) illness fluctuations, (b) invisible symptoms and (c) mobility on the PIP assessment process.

The Timms Review will be co-produced with disabled people, the organisations that represent them and other experts to ensure that expertise from a wide range of perspectives is drawn upon. This means the Government will share ownership and responsibility for how the Review runs and what it recommends.

We are currently working through how to best co-produce the Review, taking into account the feedback from extensive stakeholder engagement over the summer. I anticipate it will be led by a core leadership group of around a dozen people, the majority of whom will be disabled people.

Through co-production, it will be for this core leadership group – building from the Terms of Reference – to set the Review’s strategic direction, priorities and workplan. The Review will invite input from a wide range of perspectives. I will share more details about our approach to the Review, and recruitment of its leadership group, shortly.