Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the effects on benefit claimants of her Departments decision not to publish entitled The Uses of Health and Disability Benefits, commissioned by her Department from the National Centre for Social Research.

My Department is currently considering a range of policy options, and it is right to protect the private space within which Ministers and their policy advisers can develop policies without the risk of premature disclosure.

The Publication Protocol for Government Social Research provides guidance on the publication of social research, but it is important that Ministers consider research and its publication on a case by case basis and in the best interests of Government policy formation.