§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how he intends to ensure informed consent to participation in random assignment for those with(a) learning disabilities and (b) mental health problems; [19497]
(2) for what reasons the random assignment evaluation was delayed until six months into the national extension of New Deal for Disabled People; and for what reasons this evaluation was not conducted during the pilot programmes; [19498]
(3) what advice he has given to job brokers about recruitment to the New Deal for Disabled People during the random assignment evaluation period; how job brokers' presentation of the random assignment research will be monitored; and how long volunteers to the New 776W Deal for Disabled People will have to wait before they are told whether they are part of the control group for the random assignment evaluation; [19500]
(4) what responses were received from (a) job brokers and (b) other interested parties about the random assignment evaluation. [19501]
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownThe new Jobcentre Plus service pathfinder offices opened in October and will be rolled out nationally from April 2002. As a result of the decision that this service would include mandatory work-focused meetings for new customers making claims to incapacity benefit, which would be a gateway for NDDP, it is no longer appropriate for random assignment to be used as one of the evaluation tools. We have therefore abandoned plans for its use. We are now reviewing options for alternative approaches.
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the study "A Review of the Use of Random Assignment" will be completed; and if he will place it in the Library. [19502]
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownIt is currently anticipated that the study called "A review of the use of social experiments" will be published in February 2002. This study covers random assignment methods. A copy will be placed in the House of Commons Library.