Change of address for DWP Judicial Review Pre-Action correspondence

Please do not send any of the CPAG JR templates to DWP legal by post or email.

DWP legal have advised:

“The process for serving legal proceedings and sending pre-action correspondence to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions or the Department for Work and Pensions has recently changed. The legal queries inbox you contacted has now closed and I had thought was sending out messages to that effect.

For service of proceedings on the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions the designated address for service is now The Treasury Solicitor Government Legal Department 102 Petty France, Westminster, London SW1H 9GL. The full list is here for service against any government department is set out here: List-of-Authorised-Government-Departments-under-s.17-Crown-Proceedings-Act-1947-15.12.2023.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)The Treasury Solicitor is the head of the Government Legal Department and the full instructions for serving proceedings on the Treasury Solicitor is set out here: Government Legal Department - GOV.UK (http://www.gov.uk). You will see that the instructions state that issued proceedings relating to social security matters should be sent, where possible, by email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) .

Pre-action correspondence should now be sent directly to DWP, not to DWP Legal Advisers. DWP Legal Advisers is part of the Government Legal Department, not DWP itself. Pre-action correspondence should be sent to the relevant section of DWP. This will normally be the section of DWP responsible for the decision which is the subject of the pre-action correspondence via their usual communication methods. For example if it relates to a particular benefit decision then the pre-action letter should be sent to the address at the top of that letter.

Please redirect your correspondence accordingly and the relevant department will respond to you in due course.”

http://www.gov.uk in fact says: “[...] The email addresses above are for the service of new proceedings only. They should not be used for letters before action, or pre action protocol correspondence. If sending such documents to GLD please email these to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).”

The CPAG JR templates will be updated soon and we have contacted DWP legal for clarification on a number of points.

Hmm - so I am shortly to issue a PAP re an ongoing failure to determine a claim for IR-ESA that was made on 23/3/2020 (a new claim for ESA could be made - and the claimant only could claim ESA - as at that point she fell within the SDP Gateway provisions). Given that my correspondence to ESA has gone unanswered and they do not publish an email address, where am I supposed to email the PAP letter?

Perhaps more importantly, if I am to ensure that GLD actually have sight of the PAP before I issue, thereby increasing the likelihood of getting a response and not having to issue, I really am going to have to use the .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) email address, aren’t I? What’s the alternative?

CPAG recommend sending by email to the Treasury Solicitor and to the DWP . We have amended all the DWP template PAPs as follows. We would be very interested to know who responds (DWP or the Treasury Solicitor) when PAPs are sent this way, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

[address your letter to either the:
address on your client’s decision letter,
address your client sent their claim to, or
address on relevant DWP correspondence; or
request an upload link to post it to your client’s online UC account]

And by email to: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

[xxxx]

Note on the address for Pre-action Protocol correspondence
1. This letter is sent to you because in February 2024 a Senior Lawyer at Decision Making and Debt DWP Legal Advisers, Government Legal Department, Ground Floor Caxton House, Tothill Street, London, SW1H 9NA advised that:

Pre-action correspondence should now be sent directly to DWP, not to DWP Legal Advisers. DWP Legal Advisers is part of the Government Legal Department, not DWP itself. Pre-action correspondence should be sent to the relevant section of DWP. This will normally be the section of DWP responsible for the decision which is the subject of the pre-action correspondence via their usual communication methods. For example if it relates to a particular benefit decision then the pre-action letter should be sent to the address at the top of that letter.

2. This letter is also sent by email to the Treasury Solicitor as Cabinet Office practice direction ‘Crown Proceedings Act 1947’ (December 2023)  requires:

“All documents required to be served on the Crown for the purpose of or in connection with any civil proceedings by or against the Crown shall, if those proceedings are by or against an authorised Government department, be served on the solicitor, if any, for that department”
(Emphasis added)

3. The practice direction provides that the solicitor for service in connection with civil proceedings against the Department for Work and Pensions is “The Treasury Solicitor”.
4. The Government Legal Department webpage further instructs:

[…]
The email addresses above are for the service of new proceedings only.
They should not be used for letters before action, or pre action protocol correspondence. If sending such documents to GLD please email these to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).