[holding answer 10 September 2007]: Medical services are provided to DWP under contract by Atos Healthcare. Doctors carrying out incapacity benefit (IB) assessments are engaged by Atos Healthcare not Jobcentre Plus.
Atos Healthcare only began keeping records of complaints received by local benefits office in 2004 and by Jobcentre Plus region in 2005. Information about the number of complaints received per Medical Services Centre, relating to IB is in the following table.
Medical Services Centre 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 20071 Grand total Birmingham 62 71 78 88 23 27 349 Bootle 105 114 91 89 51 33 483 Bristol 54 70 47 43 29 28 271 Croydon 116 89 95 71 45 37 453 Cardiff 49 60 56 32 25 22 244 Edinburgh 36 21 31 36 9 14 147 Glasgow 98 78 67 50 27 28 348 Leeds 102 116 113 89 59 41 520 Manchester 77 61 50 37 25 15 265 Newcastle 78 82 105 63 40 25 393 Nottingham 89 56 63 60 70 50 388 Wembley 107 138 125 110 50 49 579 Customer relations team 86 35 32 37 33 20 243 Total complaints 1,059 991 953 805 486 389 4,653 Total IB examinations 522,803 507,479 461,000 485,237 499,895 358,207 2,834,621 Percentage complaints/examinations 0.20 0.19 0.21 0.17 0.10 0.11 0.16 1 January to August Note: The last row of the table indicates the number of ‘Official Correspondence’ complaints that the Customer Relations Team received, which are not differentiated by Medical Services Centre.
(2) how many doctors contracted to Jobcentre Plus to carry out incapacity benefit assessments resigned in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
[holding answer 10 September 2007]: Medical services are provided to DWP under contract by Atos Healthcare. Doctors carrying out incapacity benefit (IB) assessments are engaged by Atos Healthcare not Jobcentre Plus. The available information is in the following table.
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Resigned 22 68 93 65 47 Retire 4 21 13 8 6 Approval revoked 10 31 15 16 7