Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons work capability assessment reports are not released to claimants until a decision has been made on their claim; and if she will review this policy.

As part of the first Independent Review of the Work Capability Assessment, Professor Malcolm Harrington recommended a copy of the personalised summary of the assessment report was sent to every claimant.

Following a trial in 2011 evidence suggested a better approach would be to send claimants the Decision Makers justification. This approach was agreed with Professor Harrington and implementation commenced in December 2011. The implementation considered policy, operational and claimant’s requirements. As a result it was agreed that the Decision Maker’s justification will be shared in all adverse decisions, and only shared on request where entitlement has been awarded.