To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how long appeals against refusal of attendance allowance are normally taking; and what is the maximum time for which an appeal has been outstanding.

Social security appeal tribunals hear lay questions on attendance allowance; the attendance allowance board reviews decisions on medical questions on this benefit. The national administrative statistics for social security appeal tribunals show that in Great Britain, for the quarter ending 30 September 1987, the la test available figures, the average time taken between the lodgement and hearing of appeals was 35·1 weeks for attendance allowance. While the maximum time for the hearing of such an appeal is not readily available, 27 of the 40 appeals heard in this quarter took 21 weeks or more. I regret that equivalent estimates are not available for reviews by the attendance allowance board.