Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

What recent assessment her Department has made of the (a) accuracy and (b) efficiency of contracted-out health assessments for (i) employment and support allowance and (ii) personal independence payment.

We are committed to ensuring claimants receive high quality assessments. Providers are closely monitored against a range of measures including through independent audit to improve accuracy and decision making. We are seeing continuous improvement in PIP assessment quality and recent data shows both PIP providers meeting quality expectations. We continually look to improve the efficiency of the assessment process by working closely with health assessment providers and the disabled people the Department supports.