§ Lord Swinfenasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many exercises have been undertaken by the panel of experts assessing the test of incapacity for work; whether a full panel meeting will be convened to discuss the work; and whether any concerns raised by the panellists will be taken into account; and
Whether the evaluation report on the assessment of the test of incapacity for work will include the names of all panellists involved in the exercise with the organisations they represent; the nature and extent of their participation, detailing in particular those panellists invited as well as those who attended the panel meeting in December, those who completed the first exercise, those who completed subsequent exercises, those recruited for separate exercises and those who completed them; and
Whether the evaluation report on the assessment of the test of incapacity for work will include a special section for panellists to express their concerns, or reproduce the text of concerns expressed by panellists about the constraints of the exercise, either verbally in the meeting or subsequently in writing; and
To explain how the evaluation report on the assessment of incapacity for work will measure consensus on scoring when some members of the evaluation panel have not been involved in completing the scoring exercises; and
What is the total cost of the panel and evaluation exercises undertaken since December 1993 in the assessment of incapacity for work; and
Whether the evaluation report on the assessment of incapacity for work will include the letter sent to the Minister for Social Security and Disabled People on 6th May from panel members representing disability organisations, and the reply; and
Whether the evaluation report on the assessment of incapacity for work will reproduce all responses to 29WA the document A consultation on the medical assessment for Incapacity Benefit issued in December 1993.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Viscount Astor)The proposed report on the new incapacity test will set out the stages in development of the test and the Government's final proposals. There will be time for anyone, including panel members, to comment on the proposals before the regulations are presented to Parliament. The names of panel members will, subject to their agreement, be included in the report.
The assessment panel is now completing the fifth and last exercise. All comments made by the members of the panel will be taken into account in the development of the new incapacity test. We are considering whether it would be helpful to convene a meeting of the panel to consider the results further.
In deriving scores for items in the incapacity scales, we have sought to identify the broadest consensus among judges. As well as calculating averages, we have examined the distribution of scores to identify outliers and inconsistencies, then recalculated the scores excluding these values. Analysis continues and further details will be provided when the results of the exercises are published.
It is not yet possible to give a final cost for the panel's work.