To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce delays affecting Access to Work applications and claims.

Access to Work has had a significant increase in applications over the last year. New staff have been recruited and we are also doing more recruitment in the next 3 months. This will support the increased demand and reduce the time it takes to make decisions. Customers making new applications, where they are starting work within the next 4 weeks, or have a grant coming to an end that requires renewal, are prioritised to ensure customers are able to enter and remain in the labour market. We are also transforming the Access to Work service through increased digitalisation. This will make the service more efficient, the application process easier and improve the time taken from application through to decision.