Disability News Service has reported that the Labour shadow minister for disabled people, Vicky Foxcroft, has called on the DWP and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to publish two missing reports on the deaths of benefits claimants.
The coroners reports were written in 2015 and 2016 and were both Prevention of Future Deaths reports, which highlight failures in practice by the DWP which could lead to the deaths of more claimants.
These are reports which the recipients are required to act upon. They are usually published on the MoJ website and there is a presumption that such reports will be published.
Without publication, it is impossible to tell whether the DWP acted on the recommendations in the reports.
However, a string of Freedom of Information request by DNS has failed to obtain copies of the reports.
The MoJ claim that it would be impossible to find them because the reports “are filed under a limited number of categories but these do not include reference to the ‘DWP’”.
However, only around 500 such reports are created a year.
The DWP meanwhile insist that the reports are confidential and it is up to the MoJ to publish them.
