§ Mr. GoodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he will publish an assessment of the incapacity benefit pilots; and if he will make a statement. [172855]
§ Maria EagleWe will be publishing reports at intervals during the course of the evaluation of the incapacity benefit pilots, although the full and final impact assessment will not be available until early 2007. From later this year onwards, qualitative findings on areas such as personal advisers and customer experiences of the reforms will be published. An interim assessment of the impact of the incapacity benefit pilots will also be available in summer 2005. In parallel we will be assessing direct feedback from those responsible for, and participating in, the pilots in order to further improve the effectiveness of the support available, and apply appropriate lessons more widely.