Speeches by Stephenson.

“If there is this lag, what would the work study be telling you this autumn that would inform us about the expectations around productivity in the near term?”

“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…”

“Sorry to labour the point, Chair—”

“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.”

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

“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…”

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

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

“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!”

“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.”

“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?”

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

“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…”

“DEFRA, I think, is clearly at odds with the OEP on this point, which is fine, but it is worth being transparent about it. In the areas in which you think more work is required, what is DEFRA doing to scale up work to make much quicker progress?”

“I think that is quite surprising. Clearly, eight of the trends could not be assessed because of the availability, or lack of availability, of data. Why is it only now, when we are asking questions, that you are going to take it back and consider the relationship and what you can do better?”