§ Mr. Galleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how far he has now implemented the recommendations of the Oglesby report; and whether any administrative savings have resulted.
§ Mr. NewtonI assume my hon. Friend is referring to the Oglesby report on mobility allowance and attendance allowance procedures and medical adjudication. So far we have implemented 14 of the report's recommendations, all of which should improve the quality of service to the public. It is not possible to estimate the extent to which they may have produced administrative savings. The average time taken between claim and receipt of first payment has reduced since March 1983 from 16 to 10 weeks for mobility allowance and from 12.5 to 10 weeks for attendance allowance.