Welfare Reform Bill

Our amendment in this group is designed to prevent current and future pilot schemes coming under the same sort of criticism that the schemes piloting the PCA now face. As the Bill went through another place, issues were raised on the level of funding. The pilot schemes were considerably better funded per head than the rollout was going to be. We have also heard serious concerns expressed about the size of the pilots. With fewer than 100 claimants piloted, doubts have arisen as to how representative the data gathered can be, especially in the field of mental health. Pilot schemes are always subject to some difficulties. They tend to be voluntary, as they were in this case, which makes piloting conditionality almost meaningless, yet the criticism reserved for these pilots has been considerably stronger than might have been expected. It has been argued that not only were the numbers of claimants inadequate for any kind of meaningful analysis but they were also heavily weighted towards those with physical disabilities. As the mental disability assessments are the newest and least familiar part of the ESA—a point that I made yesterday—this is surprising. Why did the Government not ensure that there was more representative piloting—or, indeed, is the current piloting more representative? We have also heard that some organisations have been unable to see crucial parts of the assessments in advance. For example, the computer system is apparently not available for studying due to copyright restrictions. Given the Government’s appalling track record on managing computer systems, would it not be sensible to allow as many involved parties as possible to test and comment on the new system? Further, why have the Government not retained joint copyright over the system rather than allowing the company from which they commissioned it to retain all rights? As regards the other two amendments in this group, I have a great deal of sympathy for the amendment tabled jointly by the noble Lord, Lord Oakeshott, and the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher. The amount of criticism that has been levelled at the pilot schemes would suggest that some fairly strong measures will be needed to restore confidence in them, and I hopethat the noble Baroness the Minister—in the termsof the Interpretation Act, Peers are unisex; Imust never forget that—will consider these proposals carefully.