The Department does not hold a routinely reported average time between a Universal Credit enquiry being referred to the Agents Contact Team and resolution of that enquiry.

Enquiries referred to the Agents Contact Team can vary significantly in complexity and may require input from different parts of the Department before they can be resolved. As a result, journey times are not directly comparable and are not currently measured as a single average resolution time.

The Department remains focused on ensuring Universal Credit enquiries are handled as quickly and effectively as possible, with priority given to cases where there is evidence of vulnerability, hardship or urgent need.

As at 19 May 2026, there were 658 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff engaged in delivering the Access to Work scheme. This represents an increase of 32.29 FTE compared with 625.71 FTE staff at the end of May 2025.

The Department keeps staffing levels under review and recognises that resourcing levels can affect processing times. To address this, recruitment is underway to increase capacity, which will support the clearance of outstanding applications, and improve processing times.

Huge recruitment boost to tackle backlog in vital disability work scheme - GOV.UK.

Delays in allocating Access to Work applications for self‑employed customers are due to high demand and the additional complexity of these cases, which often require further evidence such as tax and income details.

The Department recognises the impact of these delays, particularly for disabled applicants without employer support. To address this, steps have been taken to recruit additional staff to clear the backlog and improve processing times: Huge recruitment boost to tackle backlog in vital disability work scheme - GOV.UK.

Priority is given to customers starting work within four weeks and to those renewing awards, to minimise disruption to employment.

A signal cable failure at Woking delayed the 19.05 from London Waterloo to Christchurch on the 14 July. Passengers are entitled to compensation under the national Delay Repay scheme. As the 19.05 was delayed for 120 minutes or more, passengers can claim compensation for 100 percent of the cost of their journey. Industry data doesn’t enable a reliable estimate on the number of impacted passengers to be made.

South Western Railway (SWR) were brought into public ownership on 25 May 2025. Since this date, 9.5 per cent of trains have been cancelled and 12.9 per cent of trains have been delayed by more than 15 minutes between London Waterloo and Christchurch. These cancellations and delays were not a result of the move to public ownership and could have equally occurred under private ownership. The new Managing Director for SWR, Lawrence Bowman, has been tasked with developing a detailed plan to improve SWR performance.

Between January and December 2024, the maximum time between Crawford & Co completing a medical assessment of an application to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme and the applicant being informed by the NHS Business Services Authority of my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s decision as to whether they are entitled to a payment under the scheme was 518 days. The minimum time was zero days, with the claimants informed of the outcome on the same day that the medical assessment was completed.

Over the same period, the average time between Crawford & Co completing a medical assessment of an application and the applicant being informed of my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s decision was 14 days.

The submission of applications to Crawford & Co is dependent on the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) receiving the relevant medical records from healthcare providers.

As of 3 April 2025, the maximum time between an application being made to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme and that application being submitted to Crawford & Co for review was 1,339 days. The minimum time was 14 days, and the average time was 199 days.

The NHSBSA is working with healthcare providers to speed up the rate at which these medical records are shared.

Between January 2024 and December 2024, the percentage of medical assessment reports returned within 15 working days of receipt of a fully completed medical record was 99.8%. In the same period, 10 medical assessment reports were not returned within the 15-day timeframe. Of these, nine reports were returned within a month, with one report delayed by more than a month. No medical assessment reports were delayed either by more than six or 12 months.

The supplier has previously had service credits applied as a result of not returning medical assessment reports to the NHS Business Services Authority within 15 working days. As the supplier has achieved above 95% in relation to this target since August 2023, no service credits have been applied since 2023.

The length of time it takes to process a Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme (VDPS) claim varies from case to case. This is because medical records will often be gathered from claimants’ healthcare providers before a claim undergoes medical assessment, and receiving a claimant’s records can take time.

95% of the assessments that are shared with an independent medical assessor should be returned to the VDPS administrators, the NHS Business Service Authority, within 15 working days. Sometimes this can take longer because medical assessments are complex, and these medical assessors will review individual medical records, which can be thousands of pages.

No rewards are provided within the contract.

This is a matter for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education. I have asked its Chief Executive, Jennifer Coupland, to write to the hon. Member for Christchurch, and a copy of her reply will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Statutory guidance and assurance regimes are in place in respect of NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) so that people are assessed and receive care in a timely way. NHS CHC guidance sets the expectation that the overall assessment and eligibility decision-making process should, in most cases, not exceed 28 calendar days from when the integrated care board (ICB) receives a positive NHS CHC Checklist, or other notice of potential eligibility, to the eligibility decision being made. To support this, NHS England’s assurance standard requires ICBs to ensure that in more than 80% of referrals for standard NHS CHC, the eligibility decision should be made within 28 days of this notification.

An individual should not be left without appropriate support while they await the outcome of the NHS CHC assessment and decision-making process. Redress is not available to applicants whose applications have not been decided within twelve months. If, however, an individual is unhappy with how their application has been handled, they can make a complaint to the relevant ICB. If an individual remains dissatisfied with the ICB’s response, they can make a complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.

The Department for Work and Pensions uses internal management information on finalised applications to oversee performance against our aspiration to process applications in 25 days.

The Access to Work scheme continues to be in high demand, and we are considering options for how to improve waiting times for customers.

We are unable to provide information with regards to the number of applications for Access to Work which have been outstanding for more than two months because this information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.

With regards to what steps we have taken to reduce waiting times, we have streamlined delivery practices and have increased the number of staff processing claims. We also prioritise customers starting a job within four weeks.  We have taken steps to modernise Access to Work to improve the customer experience. From April 2024, all core parts of the Scheme have been fully digital, with customers able to apply and make payment requests online.

The number of applications currently awaiting a decision under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme is published weekly and can be found at: Ukraine Family Scheme, Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme (Homes for Ukraine) and Ukraine Extension Scheme visa data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The Home Office does not publish data on the number of applications outstanding for more than 6 and 12 weeks. However, the Homes for Ukraine Scheme has a Service Level Agreement of 15 days for straightforward applications.

Additionally, the transparency data published 22 August 2024 does include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at: Visas and citizenship data: Q2 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services, to meet the needs of their local populations. The hospice sector is an important part of the range of providers and services needed.2023/24 was the final year of the Children’s Hospice Grant, which commenced in 2007. In 2024/25, however, NHS England provided an additional £25 million of funding for children and young people’s hospices, maintaining the level of grant funding from 2023/24. This funding was distributed, for the first time, via ICBs, in line with National Health Service devolution. The Department does not hold data on how much funding each ICB has provided to children’s hospices and other hospices over 2024/25.

To support ICBs in their duty to commission palliative and end of life care services, NHS England has published statutory guidance, as well as service specifications for adults, and children and young people, all of which are available, respectively, at the following three links:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/palliative-and-end-of-life-care-statutory-guidance-for-integrated-care-boards-icbs/

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/service-specifications-for-palliative-and-end-of-life-care-adults/

https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/service-specifications-for-palliative-and-end-of-life-care-children-and-young-people-cyp/

The Government is investing an additional £600 million for 2023/24 and £1 billion for 2024/25, through the Discharge Fund, to support the National Health Service and local authorities in ensuring timely and effective discharge from hospital. As part of their allocations for 2023/24, NHS Dorset Integrated Care Board received £5.7 million, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council received £1.9 million, and Dorset Council received £1.7 million. There will be an independent evaluation of the Discharge Fund for 2023/24 and 2024/25.

Nationally, this funding has supported more people to be discharged more quickly with more appropriate support. The number of people discharged from hospital with packages of health and social care support increased by 10% between the end of February 2023 and the end of February 2024. Thanks to this improved patient flow hospitals have been able to admit and treat more patients during this period.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) makes independent, evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS, based on an assessment of their costs and benefits.

Currently, there is one product licensed specifically for epidermolysis bullosa, Filsuvez gel, which contains birch bark extract. The NICE recommends birch bark extract as a clinically and cost effective use of NHS resources, and the NHS is legally required to fund it in line with the NICE’s recommendations. Other healthcare products are also used in the care of epidermolysis bullosa patients. There are a number of licensed and NICE recommended treatments for other inflammatory skin conditions that are now routinely available for NHS patients.

The Environment Agency (EA) and Natural England (NE) gather monitoring data to track levels of phosphorus in the River Avon Special Area of Conservation (SAC). Phosphorus concentrations in the headwaters of the River Avon are typically around 0.1 mg/L, and in some reaches are even higher, declining to around 0.065 mg/L in the lower reaches.

The River Avon Nutrient Management Plan (NMP) sets out further evidence and supporting information on phosphorus levels in the river. This includes information on the reductions in phosphorus loads from different sources that would be required to achieve the SAC water quality targets, and the measures that must be in place in order for these reductions to be achieved.

The Environment Agency (EA) and Natural England (NE) have also been reviewing the reduction targets and measures against the updated ‘polluter pays’ fair share targets and will update the NMP as needed following this review. The latest information indicates the annual average nutrient load passing through the Avon (nutrient budget) for the SAC is around 55 tonnes Ortho-phosphorus a year. Reductions to meet the SAC target potentially equate to around 47% from all sources.

Subject to Ofwat approval and expected advice from Defra on the implementation of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, necessary water company reductions are expected to be met over PR24 and PR29. The EA and NE will be looking for similar reductions from the agricultural sector over this time frame but details around this need to be finalised.

The EA and NE are working with a number of partners, stakeholders and landowners in the River Avon to ensure nutrient loads are managed and reduced effectively. This includes delivering advice schemes like Catchment Sensitive Farming to reduce diffuse pollution from agriculture, supporting innovative river restoration schemes that optimise phosphorus reduction, and providing sustainable development advice to developers. There will be further engagement with stakeholders as part of any NMP update.

The average time taken to process a claim to the Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme is calculated by the NHS Business Services Authority from receipt of the application to the claimant receiving notification of the outcome.

The data requested can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The Ministry of Justice publishes statistics on receipts and disposals in the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber). The published statistics are available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2023.