How many times has the Conservative government trumpeted a new policy to include ordinary people in public policy, and then quietly sidelined them when the bad reports started coming in?

I don’t think this is the only example!

It’s a handy smokescreen – claiming that members of a special interest group, like people with disabilities, will monitor the part of government activity that affects them.

Then ignoring the contribution made by those people, and hiding it from the public.

The subterfuge has served its purpose, you see – it allayed fears about the Tories’ attack on the citizens of the UK at a particular time, and that was all it was meant to do.

But there’s one snag:

The Tories never expect to be picked up on their extravagant promises.

But here’s John Pring of Disability News Service, asking that difficult question – repeatedly.

And here’s the Conservative government, failing to answer it. Draw your own conclusions:

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has repeatedly breached freedom of information laws in an apparent attempt to prevent the release of secret reports written by disabled people recruited to work within its jobcentres.

Two years ago, DWP published a work, health and disability green paper, Improving Lives, in which it revealed plans to recruit about 200 new “community partners”.

The aim was for them to “provide valuable first-hand insight” into the issues faced by disabled people in “securing and sustaining employment”, with work coaches able to draw on their local knowledge.

Disability News Service (DNS) has since learned that these community partners submit regular reports on their work, often based on their experiences of visiting jobcentres.

DNS therefore submitted a freedom of information request to DWP in May, asking to see any of the reports written by community partners working in London Jobcentre Plus districts in 2017 and 2018, in case any of them included concerns raised by Community Partners about such failings.

Such requests are supposed to be answered within 20 working days, but there has so far been no written response from the department’s freedom of information department.

Source: DWP repeatedly breaches FoI laws ‘in bid to hide secret jobcentre reports’

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