Welfare Reform Bill

I am pleased to be here to move new clause 3, which relates to the personal capability assessment for limited capability for work. This matter was discussed in Committee, but some of the outstanding issues are of sufficient importance to be raised again at this stage of the Bill. New clause 3, which I am pleased to say also has the support of other parties, proposes an annual report to Parliament on the operation of the personal capability assessment. It would enable monitoring, testing and independent evaluation, all of which are sorely needed in relation to the revised personal capability assessment. I am sure that all hon. Members would agree that revisions to the assessment for entitlement to incapacity benefit—or employment and support allowance, as it seems likely to become—are sorely needed. It is fair to observe that quite a lot of good work has been done in the stakeholder groups and other groups that are making recommendations on the way in which the test should be changed, particularly to enable greater attention to be paid to the way in which it meets the needs of people with mental health problems or learning disabilities. In response to the recommendations that those groups have put forward, I would say, ““So far, so good.”” But—and it is a big ““but””, as the Minister will not be surprised to hear—I have real concerns about the testing process that has been undertaken so far. Those who served on the Committee will remember that we had a substantial debate on the merits or otherwise of having independent involvement in the evaluation process for the revised personal capability assessment. The Minister contended at that stage that all that was needed was a series of dummy runs, as the Department was proposing. This would effectively involve running the new test alongside the old test, and observing the outcome. However, the reports that I have seen on the outcome of the first dummy runs are very worrying, which is why I have tabled the new clause to ensure that there will be a regular report to the House on the way in which the tests for deciding entitlement to benefit are operating. My first worry is that the process under which the dummy runs are being carried out has been shrouded in secrecy. I am told that a report has been made available to some of the groups involved in advising on the revision to the personal capability assessment. I tabled a parliamentary question before the Christmas recess asking the Minister to publish that report but, as far as I am aware, it has not been published. A copy has certainly not been made available to me. Secondly, the testing has been carried out internally by the Department for Work and Pensions and the contractor responsible for undertaking the assessment, Atos Origin, without any independent assessment or assistance whatever. It also remains a matter of concern that details of the Logic Integrated Medical Assessment—the computer program backing all this up—have not been made available to independent groups, and nor have details of the logic within the system whereby the answer to one question prompts the medical assessor to ask other questions. Full details of the report on the dummy runs and LIMA should be published. Questions of commercial confidentiality have been raised, which implies that perhaps those details cannot be published. My understanding, however, is that the copyright for the LIMA program is owned by the Department for Work and Pensions; it is not the private property of the company that carries out the assessments. Perhaps the Minister will correct me on that. Given the dramatic impact of the questions and the operation of the computer program on benefit claimants, I can see no barrier to making those details available to the House. It is of real concern that the evaluation of the dummy runs seems to be the main evidence that will inform the draft regulations, which we were told would be made available to the other place when it starts consideration of the Bill. In that context, it is important to place on record the concerns put to me by outside groups about the way in which the dummy runs have been carried out. As I understand it, fewer than 100 claimants were tested, which is a very selective and not necessarily representative sample. It is therefore hard to make like-for-like comparisons. Importantly, the process was not followed right through to the appeals stage. All Members will know from their constituency casework that the high number of appeals against personal capability assessments for incapacity benefit was one of the main reasons for the revision of the test. Some 50 per cent. of appeals against decisions on the personal capability assessment are successful. Unless one follows the new assessment process through to the appeals stage, to try to understand whether appeals against decisions made under it are likely to be successful, it will be hard to judge whether the new assessment process is better or worse than the old one.