Speeches by Stephenson.

“To summarise, we should expect to see, by the summer, improvements such that caseworkers are making more decisions per day and they are being more consistent in that decision making so that there is fairness in the system.”

“You mentioned a few things about driving productivity. Could you go into a bit more detail about what you are planning and when we should expect to see improvements? I am particularly interested in the IT; the NAO Report refers to particularly archaic IT systems, with staff having to use multiple systems and copy infor…”

“But what happened around January 2025, when we saw this slight improvement?”

“At what point do you think it is reasonable for this Committee to look at the work that is going on currently to improve productivity, in order for us to assess whether you have been successful in improving productivity among caseworkers in the DWP, both from a backlog perspective and from a business-as-usual perspecti…”

“Yes. Can I just pause you there? For January 2025, we seem to see an inflection point. I do not know if this is a long-term trend, where we are seeing an improvement in productivity, such that you may end up getting closer to your 2.8 target. We can probably argue about whether that is the right target and who set it.”

“Yes. I just cannot imagine the frustration that our constituents would feel on hearing an automated voice message tell them that it could take 37 weeks for them to have a decision. That is why I was exasperated. However, I want to talk about the productivity improvements that I know DWP is planning. Before I go into th…”

“Thirty-seven weeks!”

“But you will still have three separate systems; they will just talk to one another better?”

“In response to my earlier questions, you suggested that you will be improving the consistency of decision making through your standard operating procedures. But is there not a more fundamental issue, which is how you have gone about designing the scheme? Looking at the NAO Report, it says, “DWP has concerns that, becau…”

“That is an interesting response, because what I read to you earlier was a DWP concern: “DWP has concerns that, because it has not designed the scheme in a prescriptive way or defined the rules tightly, awards have not always aligned with the policy intent”. Now you are saying that you deliberately did not design a sche…”

“Thank you for clarifying that. I am pleased that you gave the example of an ergonomic chair being claimed by a large employer, and I agree that it would be totally inappropriate for public money to be spent on that. Could you outline what the DWP is doing to stop the parties from inappropriately profiting from the sche…”

“That is not productivity; that is just adding more staff.”

“Absolutely. Do you have a sense of how much money is being spent as a result of decisions that, in an ideal world, would not have been made? As you say, decisions are made case by case, and you want to empower your caseworkers to make decisions, but within that, there is a risk that a lot of money is being spent on, as…”

“Secretary of State, thanks for coming along. Could you please start by describing the relationship between DEFRA and the Office for Environmental Protection from your perspective?”

“What is the day-to-day relationship like between DEFRA and the OEP? That is what I am getting at.”

“Yes, a natural tension.”

“It sounds like you think the relationship is collaborative.”

“This is my final question, Chair, and I am at time. Do you believe the OEP has sufficient resources to do its job properly in order to hold the Government to account and stay on track with these targets?”

“The OEP has noted to us that there are challenges in the co-operation, and I think that has manifested in it being unable to assess some of the trends because of the availability of data. Would you like to reflect again on the levels of collaboration you see between DEFRA and the OEP, and to think about whether improve…”

“That is helpful. Thank you for outlining that. Could you explain what you are doing substantively to improve the quality of the data so that the OEP can do its job?”