Work Capability Assessment

Thursday 14th July 2011 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chris Grayling)]

Today the Government will publish a call for evidence as part of Professor Malcolm Harrington’s second independent review of the Work Capability Assessment (WCA).

In November 2010 we published Professor Harrington’s first review, which was the first of five annual independent reviews of the WCA. Professor Harrington concluded that the WCA was not broken but made a number of recommendations to improve its fairness and effectiveness. We fully endorsed his review and have implemented the vast majority of its recommendations, with all the recommendations relating to IB reassessment already in place.

We reappointed Professor Harrington to undertake the second year review of the WCA and this call for evidence will be one of several methods used to gather information to support the review and inform its recommendations. The call for evidence is particularly interested in views and evidence about:

The implementation of Professor Harrington’s year 1 recommendations and the impact they are having;

What, if any, further work is required in future reviews; and

The face-to-face assessment.

The call for evidence runs until 16 September 2011.

Professor Harrington will make his final recommendations to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions by the end of the year.

A copy of the call for evidence will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and will be available on the Department’s website.

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/welfare-reform/employment-and-support/wca-independent-review.