Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential link between the fitness for work test and (a) suicides, (b) other deaths and (c) harm.

DWP does not collect or record the cause of a customer’s death and will not usually be made aware of how a customer died.

Cause of death is determined by a doctor or a coroner. There is no requirement for a Coroner to inform the department of the outcome of an inquest unless named as an Interested Person at that inquest - or the coroner decides to issue a Prevention of Future Deaths report to the department.

As a result, we are unable to collect information on or make any assessment on any potential links between the fitness for work test and suicides, other deaths and harm and only a coroner would be able to determine if one did exist on a case-by-case basis.

Attempted suicides and suicides are very complex issues. Where there is an allegation that the Department’s actions, including any related to the fitness for work test, may have had an impact on a customer’s circumstances, we take it very seriously and where appropriate we would undertake an Internal Process Review to establish if we could have done anything differently, to inform future learning and improve services. These reviews do not investigate the cause of a customer’s death and are not undertaken as a result of every suicide or death and therefore would not provide the information to show if a link existed.

Internal Process Reviews themes are considered quarterly at the department’s Serious Case Panel, which has an external Chair. Arrangements are being made to start publishing fuller minutes of the Panel’s meetings from the new year.