To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs pursuant to the answer to Question 80303, what meetings she has held with Ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions to discuss their response to the president of the tribunal's reports on their standards in making incapacity benefit decisions; and if she will make a statement on (a) resulting initiatives and (b) the expected levels of tribunal workload over the next two years. (83883)

No meetings have been held with Ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions on this subject since responsibility for appeal tribunals transferred to this Department on 1 April 2006. The president of appeal tribunals’ sixth report on the standard of decisions made on behalf of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in cases which come before appeal tribunals was published on 6 July 2006, Official Report, Column 52WS.

A Joint Steering Committee has been established between the Tribunals Service and Jobcentre Plus, the agency which administers Incapacity Benefit, to provide feedback on cases considered by appeal tribunals and to look for ways to avoid customers having to go through the appeals process.