Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has plans to update the training module on Fibromyalgia issued by her Department on 18 April 2018; and whether her Department has made an assessment of (a) the level of compliance with the training module by benefits assessors and (b) the effectiveness of the guidance in identifying suffers of Fibromyalgia.

The training module is due to be reviewed in April 2019 and Fibromyalgia UK will be invited to quality assure the document which they previously reviewed in March 2018. The Department’s Independent Audit Team conducts an audit of a statistically significant sample of the Centre for Health and Disability Assessment reports that includes Fibromyalgia cases. The role of Healthcare Professionals conducting assessments is to provide advice on the functional impact of a condition and not to diagnose or advise on treatment.