by Thank you for your Freedom of Information request received on 17 July 2009.
You asked for:
• the number of claimants for ESA in Teesside postcode area
• medical assessment outcomes
• the number of appeals against refusals for ESA
• the number accepted at appeal
• the cost per medical
I am writing to confirm that the Department has now completed its search for the information you requested.
• The number of ESA claims received between 27 October 2008 and 17 July 2009 is 7652.
• A total of 1057 appeals have been received against ESA decisions. This number represents appeals against all ESA decisions including those in relation to Work Capability Assessment.
• Of the appeals heard by the Tribunal Service 7 have been allowed.
I wish to advise you that some of the information cannot be disclosed for the reasons below.
The information you requested in respect of the cost of each medical is being withheld as it falls under the exemption in section S43(2) of the Freedom of Information Act. This exemption covers procurement information where disclosure may be potentially prejudicial to commercial interests. In applying this exemption the Department has balanced the public interest in withholding the information against the public interest in disclosing the information.
In addition I am unable at present to provide you with statistics in relation to medical assessment outcomes, ie the outcome of Work Capability Assessments, as these are not yet available to us.
What is not known, is how many appeals have been heard.
7 out of a possible 1057 total appeals is a very low success rate - however, without knowing how many are still waiting to be heard, its a meaningless figure, as its possible only 7 appeals have been heard in total and they were all succesful, or all the appeals have been heard, and only 7 were successful, or some mix in between the two.