Appeals relating to Adult Disability Benefit: FOI release

Information requested

We're doing some research into representation of individuals appealing benefits decisions at tribunals, and particularly for people with disabilities and/or long-term illness.

We would like to please make a Freedom of Information request for the following data, for the period June 2023 - June 2025

Your request for information 1:

1. Across Scotland as a whole
2. In the Stirling area

The numbers of appeals related to Adult Disability Benefit (ADP); and the percentage of these that resulted in a decision being overturned by the Tribunal.

The numbers of appeals related to ADP where the appellant was represented by a third party; and the percentage of these that resulted in a decision being overturned by the Tribunal.

Your request for information 2:

Appeals held at Wallace House in Stirling

Response

Regarding the publication of data, the latest figures available cover to the end of April 2025. The next quarterly publication covering to July 2025 will be published on 16 September 2025.

To cover the most current 2-year period I have provided figures that cover April 2023 – April 2025.

Request for information 1

Most of the information you have requested is available from

Social Security Scotland - Adult Disability Payment statistics to 30 April 2025

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

An additional exemption under section 27(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information requested because we intend to publish that information on 16 September 2025, which is within 12 weeks of the date of your request. We consider that it is reasonable to withhold the information until that date, rather than release this routinely published information before the planned publication date.

This exemption is subject to the ‘public interest test’. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release because of transparency and accountability and this will be met by our planned publication. In the meantime, there is a greater public interest in taking the time necessary to ensure the information has been properly collated and checked before it is published as planned. Also, we see no public interest in disrupting our programme of work to release the information ahead of the intended publication date.

To be helpful we have extracted the current information that has been published below. To cover the most current 2-year period I have provided figures that cover financial years April 2023 – April 2025.

1.a)

Financial Years April 2023 – April 2025

Number of appeals received – 9080
Appeal decisions made – 3505
Appeals upheld – 1835
Appears not upheld – 1670

1.b)

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the costs of locating, retrieving and providing the information requested would exceed the upper cost limit of £600.The way that we collect data would mean that we would need to go through over nine thousand appeals in order to break down the figures by local authority area. Under section 12 of FOISA public authorities are not required to comply with a request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of complying would exceed the upper cost limit, which is currently set at £600 by Regulations made under section 12. You may, however, wish to consider reducing the scope of your request in order that the costs can be brought below £600. If you were to reduce the size of your request to perhaps one month it may be feasible.

You may also find it helpful to look at the Scottish Information Commissioner's 'Tips for requesting information under FOI and the EIRs' on his website at:

https://www.foi.scot/how-do-i-ask

Request for information 2

Appeals held specific to Wallace House Stirling are as follows:

Adult Disability Payment – 33 appeals
Child Disability Payment - 1 Appeal
Pension Age Disability Payment – 0 Appeals

These figures are management information based on manually recorded data and is not part of the dataset used to produce the Official Statistics releases.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.