Backbench Business — Atos Work Capability Assessments

Part of Business of the House – in the House of Commons at 1:20 pm on 17 January 2013.

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Photo of Austin Mitchell Austin Mitchell Labour, Great Grimsby 1:20, 17 January 2013

The number of MPs who want to speak today and the passion that has been shown are testimony to the fact that the system has not worked, is not working and ought to be scrapped. I hope that the Minister is listening, because that is clearly a strong concern on both sides of the House.

The key weakness of the system is the perfunctory, mechanical, inhuman and rushed process of assessment. I have to point out to the Minister that as the system has been handed to the private sector, the more perfunctory the process of assessment, the greater the profit made by Atos and the assessors.