§ Mr. Alex Carlileasked the Secretary of State for Social Services when he expects the appeal by Mr. Ernest Trevor Smout, of Newtown, to be heard by the pensions appeal tribunal; and if he will take steps to reduce the delay between the notification and hearing of appeals.
§ Mr. Whitney[pursuant to his reply, 18 February 1985, c. 393]: A statement of his case was sent to Mr. Smout on 12 February 1985 and the Department is required by law to allow him 28 days to respond. If no further action is required as a result of comments by Mr. Smout the case will be passed immediately to the Lord Chancellor's Department to arrange the hearing. We would expect this to take approximately three months.
The Department has for some time been concerned about the increase in the time it is taking to bring war pension appeals to a hearing. The process prescribed by law and the general need to obtain further evidence from hospitals and consultants necessarily make the preparation of an appeal for hearing lengthy. Unfortunately there has been a shortage of suitably experienced doctors for this type of work and considerable arrears of appeals have been built up, adding to the processing time. There has been some recent improvement in the arrears situation in war Pensions as a whole but the effect on the more complex appeals work will be gradual.