Dear Steve

Assessment of Personal Independence Payment statistics

Thank you for inviting us to assess DWP’s Personal Independence Payment statistics against the Code of Practice for Statistics. We have today published our Assessment Report covering these statistics. I am grateful for the positive contribution and engagement from your team throughout the assessment process.

We have identified one requirement to improve the overall value of the statistics focusing on user engagement to understand a wider range of user views and to drive the future development of the statistics. We judge that the Personal Independence Payment statistics can be designated as accredited official statistics (called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007) once we have confirmed that the requirement set out in the report has been met. Addressing the requirement will demonstrate that your statistics comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

I am copying this letter to Alexander Rass, Head of Client Statistics at DWP, and Jess Arrowsmith, Juwaria Rahman and Rosie Benfield, the statistical team at DWP.

Yours sincerely

Rob Kent-Smith