§ Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the Government's target time is from application to hearing for appeals concerning industrial injuries disablement benefit diseases; and what the average waiting time has been for those whose appeals are currently being heard. [175717]
§ Mr. Pond[pursuant to the reply, 27 May 2004, Official Rep#rt, c. 1802W]:
This is a matter for Christina Townsend, Chief Executive of the Appeals Service. She will reply to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Chris Pond to Mr. Tony Lloyd, dated 31 August 2004:
Dr. Christina Townsend, Chief Executive of the Appeals Service, wrote to you on 27 May in reply to your question about waiting times for Industrial Injuries Disablement appeals.
Unfortunately, the figure quoted in the reply was for appeal clearance rather than appeal waiting time. I am sorry that this mistake, which was the result of a programming error when producing the data, has arisen. I attach a copy of the amended reply, which will also be published in Hansard.
Letter from Christina Townsend to Mr. Tony Lloyd, dated 31 August 2004:
Pursuant to my written answer on 27 May, Official Report, column 1802W. The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question regarding the target time for hearing appeals concerning Industrial Disablement Benefit (IIDB) diseases and the average waiting time for those whose appeals are currently being heard.
Our target for the 2003–2004 financial year was to hear appeals within an average of 13 weeks from receipt in our Service. Information on waiting times is not available in the format requested but I can advise you that the average waiting time for Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit appeals was 9.261 weeks for the 2003–2004 financial year.
I hope that this is helpful.
Notes:
1 All figures are subject to change as more up to date data becomes available.
Figures for the latest months may rise significantly as information feeds through to the Appeals Service.
Figures are rounded to two decimal places
Source:
100 per cent. download of the Generic Appeals Processing System