Secret emails reveal DWP frustration at attempts to hold bosses to account for years of deaths

Emails sent by Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) communications staff reveal how they have grown increasingly frustrated at attempts to hold their bosses to account for years of deaths linked to their treatment of disabled benefit claimants.

The information was released to Disability News Service (DNS) after a request to see emails from the DWP communications team that mentioned DNS editor John Pring in the months after Labour’s general election victory in July 2024 and the publication of his book about the years of DWP deaths the following month*.

It took eight months for DWP to produce the heavily-redacted emails in response to his right of access request, and they were only released thanks to pro bono assistance from solicitors Mishcon de Reya and their senior data protection specialist, Jon Baines.

The emails reveal repeated critical references to Pring, including referring to him as “Mr old reliable”, with several referring to him as “RR”, which other emails suggest is short for “our regular requester”.

Most seriously, in one email, while discussing a possible interview with Sir Stephen Timms, the minister for social security and disability, one DWP staff member suggests that Pring cannot be trusted to follow journalistic ethics.

Despite no evidence of any such behaviour by Pring in a quarter of a century dealing with the department, one staff member wrote: “Just to be clear, while we would set out any discussion is off the record, it is unlikely JP would adhere to this in the usual way a journo would.”

There are also suspicious references to Pring in emails in which most of the content has been redacted, with one email warning: “We know the background of JP,” and another suggesting that a person “has links with JP”.

Many of the comments about Pring are followed by redacted information, which DNS will now attempt to obtain.

But the emails also reveal the growing levels of frustration and irritation with DNS and its persistent attempts – stretching back over more than a decade – to investigate serious safeguarding failures within the department, and its responsibility for hundreds, and probably thousands, of deaths.

In one email, in January 2025, someone in the communications department, in response to a query about the high proportion of employment and support allowance claimants who had reported suicide attempts, wrote: “Is this another Pring one?” [their emphasis]

The following month, as DNS continued to probe the same issue, the level of frustration reached new heights, with one staff member writing in an email: “What’s this one about now?

“This is yet MORE time taken up by him… can we speak about the volume of FOIs** and press queries he’s submitting as it’s getting beyond a joke now.”

And in March 2025, when DNS asked questions relating to safeguarding, following comments made by Sir Stephen to the Commons work and pensions committee, one staff member said: “Goodness me. He’s banging this drum again!”

DWP refused this week to apologise for any of the comments about Pring, including questioning his ethics as a journalist.

But a DWP spokesperson said in a statement: “All redactions were made in line with established Right of Access Request guidance to protect the personal information of another individual.

“Safeguarding is central to all we do, and we are strengthening our approach to ensure people who use our services get the right support.

“The DWP deals with hundreds of media queries a month, and we hold our staff to high standards of conduct.

“Staff have been reminded of their responsibilities, and that internal communications should exemplify our high standards and values.”

*The Department: How a Violent Government Bureaucracy Killed Hundreds and Hid the Evidence, Pring’s book on the years of deaths linked to DWP’s actions and failings, is published by Pluto Press

**DNS submitted about 47 freedom of information requests to DWP in 2025 and about 30 in 2024, an average of less than one a week