• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About DNS
  • Subscribe to DNS
  • Advertise with DNS
  • Support DNS
  • Contact DNS

Disability News Service

the country's only news agency specialising in disability issues

  • Home
  • Independent Living
    • Arts, Culture and Sport
    • Crime
    • Education
    • Employment
    • Housing
    • Transport
  • Activism & Campaigning
  • Benefits & Poverty
  • Politics
  • Human Rights
You are here: Home / Benefits and Poverty / Net closing on government departments that refuse to publish deaths reports
Vicky Foxcroft head and shoulders

Net closing on government departments that refuse to publish deaths reports

By John Pring on 21st May 2020 Category: Benefits and Poverty

Listen

The government is facing calls to publish two coroners’ reports that link the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) with the deaths of benefit claimants.

New information shows that the missing reports were written by coroners in 2015 and 2016, but neither of them have ever been published.

Both “prevention of future deaths” (PFD) reports warned DWP that more disabled people could die if the department failed to act.

But both DWP and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) are refusing to release the reports, so it is unclear whether work and pensions ministers took any action to protect other benefit claimants.

Labour’s new shadow minister for disabled people, Vicky Foxcroft (pictured), called on the government to publish the two reports, and described its reluctance to do so as “worrying”.

The two PFD reports were written by coroners and sent to DWP, and they were also passed to the chief coroner for publication on the MoJ website.

Following a series of reports, freedom of information requests and ministerial answers to written parliamentary questions – including two from Foxcroft – Disability News Service (DNS) has now been able to confirm that one of the reports was written following an inquest that was held in 2015, while the other followed an inquest that took place in 2016.

One of the reports related to the death of a benefit claimant who took their own life, while the other cause of death has not been revealed.

The existence of the two unpublished reports was first revealed by DNS in March.

The chief coroner of England and Wales, Judge Mark Lucraft, who receives all PFD reports from coroners and publishes them on the official website of the judiciary, has so far been unable to explain why he has not published the two missing documents.

But guidance issued by his predecessor makes it clear that there is a “a presumption of publication” for such reports.

MoJ, in a response to a DNS freedom of information request, has resisted requests to search for the two missing reports, suggesting that it would be impossible to do so because PFDs “are filed under a limited number of categories but these do not include reference to the ‘DWP’”.

Only about 500 PFDs are written by coroners every year.

A written response this month to Foxcroft from Justin Tomlinson, the minister for disabled people, showed that the missing PFDs were written by coroners in 2015 and 2016.

He had earlier told her that DWP “considers the information confidential and it is the chief coroner’s decision whether to publish these reports”.

Foxcroft told DNS: “The government’s reluctance to release these reports is a worrying move that it should immediately reconsider.

“A key focus of prevention of future deaths reports is to understand past mistakes and ensure they do not happen again.

“The public has a right to know what changes have been made to avoid future deaths, and many will wonder what it is trying to hide.”

 

A note from the editor:

Please consider making a voluntary financial contribution to support the work of DNS and allow it to continue producing independent, carefully-researched news stories that focus on the lives and rights of disabled people and their user-led organisations.

Please do not contribute if you cannot afford to do so, and please note that DNS is not a charity. It is run and owned by disabled journalist John Pring and has been from its launch in April 2009.

Thank you for anything you can do to support the work of DNS…

Share this post:

Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on WhatsAppShare on Reddit

Tags: benefit deaths DWP Freedom of Information Labour Ministry of Justice Prevention of future deaths Vicky Foxcroft

Related

Fears over impact of DWP’s ‘horrific’ and ‘sinister’ anti-fraud plan
26th May 2022
Company linked to death of PIP claimant gives itself ‘seven or eight out of 10’
26th May 2022
Public order bill will criminalise disabled protesters, says MP
26th May 2022

Primary Sidebar

Image shows a man wearing glasses sitting by an open laptop The text reads: Free Career Support for Disabled People Our services include: 1-2-1 Coaching Online Career Resources Find Support near you Search for Inclusive Jobs Career Events and Workshops Visit the Evenbreak Career Hive today to find out how we can help you

Access

Latest Stories

Fears over impact of DWP’s ‘horrific’ and ‘sinister’ anti-fraud plan

Ministerial duo dismiss concerns over social care funding crisis

Company linked to death of PIP claimant gives itself ‘seven or eight out of 10’

Public order bill will criminalise disabled protesters, says MP

Disabled woman pays hundreds in fines, after council refuses reasonable adjustments

Councils frequently fail to make reasonable adjustments, says ombudsman

Campaigners celebrate their Crossrail access win as line finally opens, eight years on

Grenfell: Call for action over government’s ‘deplorable’ decision on evacuation plans

‘Severely neglected’ man found dead, three months after DWP assessment

Government brands DNS ‘vexatious’ for trying to obtain info on 90 DWP deaths

Advice and Information

The Department for Work and Pensions: Deaths, cover-up, and a toxic 30-year legacy

Readspeaker

Footer

The International Standard Serial Number for Disability News Service is: ISSN 2398-8924

  • Accessibility Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Site map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2022 Disability News Service

Site development by A Bright Clear Web