Health: Atos

Baroness Wilkins Excerpts
Monday 26th November 2012

(11 years, 12 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Freud Portrait Lord Freud
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My Lords, the number of complaints against Atos is running at 0.57%, which compares, for example, with a figure of 3.5% for complaints about doctors to the General Medical Council. That is the level of complaint.

Baroness Wilkins Portrait Baroness Wilkins
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My Lords, 40% of those who go to appeal about an Atos assessment win their appeal. Will the Minister say what the cost of those tribunals has been and why the taxpayer should pay for the inadequacy of Atos’s assessments?

Lord Freud Portrait Lord Freud
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My Lords, while the figure of 40% for those who go to appeal is roughly accurate, the total number of those found fit to work by the tribunal changes only 15% of that total. The reasons are usually to do with fresh evidence, which is either written or oral. The cost of that runs at about £11.3 million from the DWP’s perspective and £14.9 million from the point of view of the courts. That figure is for the first half of the current year.