Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 26 June (HL886), what specific qualitative evaluation methods are being deployed to guarantee that claimants with learning disabilities in the Transform Decision Making pilot are not systematically disadvantaged before any further expansion of the pilot.

Through our impact evaluation of the pilot, we will be exploring, where possible, whether there are differential outcomes by primary disabling condition. We do not anticipate being able to identify impacts specifically on claimants with learning disabilities due to the small scale of the trial and low volume of these cases involved.

In addition to the impact evaluation, we are undertaking research with provider and DWP staff. This is to understand their experiences of undertaking assessments and making decisions under the changed approach. Our qualitative evaluation methods will include observations and interviews. We are not undertaking any specific qualitative evaluation activity with claimants with learning disabilities during this trial. We will continue to monitor decision making quality throughout the trial through established quality assurance processes.