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Written question asked by Will Forster (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 24 February 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 26 February 2026. It was answered by Andrew Western (Labour) on Wednesday, 4 March 2026 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.


Independent Case Examiner: Standards

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the longest time it has taken was for a case to be assigned a caseworker at the Independent Case Examiner in the latest period for which data is available.

Answer

The average time taken from complaint receipt to allocation to an investigator (based on cases in investigation on 31 January 2026) was 26.62 weeks. Despite increased demand levels, this is a significant improvement compared to January 2024, when the average wait time was 56.08 weeks.

Of those cases in investigation on 31 January 2026, the case which had waited the longest took 45.29 weeks to be allocated to an investigator from the date it was received at ICE.

The Independent Case Examiner’s office continually seeks to improve further.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
115664
Session
2024-26
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Standards Independent Case Examiner
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk