Welfare Reform Bill

moved Amendment No. 31: 31: Clause 8 , page 6, line 17, at end insert— ““( ) ensure consistency of assessment across the country;”” The noble Lord said: In speaking to this amendment I shall also speak to Amendment No. 33. This amendment is about the consistency of testing, which to an extent we covered in our discussions just now. These amendments place a requirement on the Secretary of State to ensure that the assessments will be of a consistent standard across the country, and of course that depends on the training we have just been talking about. Other parts of the Bill, particularly the clause enabling the contracting out of service provision to third-party organisations, will lead to the possibility that claimants will have to suffer a postcode lottery in the quality and rigour of the assessments—or, rather, not the assessments, I hope, because they are under departmental control, but certainly the post-assessment support from the personal advisers. Will the Minister assure the Committee that a rigorous standard will be enforced across the country? Although some flexibility is a good thing when it comes to responding sensibly to unique individual circumstances, that should not be taken to the extreme of allowing individual providers to go their own way. Can the Minister explain what steps will be taken to monitor how these assessments will be undertaken? Without sufficiently rigorous supervision, there will be no way of knowing whether the criteria for eligibility are being applied fairly across the whole country, and no remedial measures can be taken. I have now remembered the point I was going to put to the Minister on the previous group of amendments. I still do not understand where the decision-maker fits in to the operation. If she can answer that as well as responding to the three questions I have just asked, I will be extremely grateful. I beg to move.