Welfare Reform

Mr. Philip Hammond
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) whether Ministers and officials (a) in his Department and (b) in other Departments suggested amendments to David Freud’s report on the welfare system prior to its publication;

(2) on how many occasions drafts of David Freud’s report on the welfare system were shown to Ministers and officials (a) in his Department and (b) in other Departments prior to the report’s publication;

(3) at what stage drafts of David Freud’s report on the welfare system were first made available to (a) Ministers in his Department and (b) to Ministers in other Departments.

Mr. Jim Murphy
David Freud involved officials from across the Department in his review and drafts of the report were checked for consistency and factual accuracy prior to publication. Ministers and officials from other Government Departments were similarly asked to check the areas that related to their responsibilities.

Mr. Philip Hammond
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many special advisers from his Department worked on David Freud’s review of the welfare system.

Mr. Jim Murphy
No special advisers were directly involved in working on the review.