22 February 2017

DWP tells the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) that it does not keep track of peer review recommendations.

What: DWP tells the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) that it has destroyed records relating to how recommendations from peer/internal process reviews were passed to and from the relevant national “customer journey teams”, and therefore has no record of whether recommendations were acted on. It also tells ICO there is “no requirement” for it to keep track of what action was taken after these recommendations were passed on, and that because the peer reviews were a “voluntary internal process”, it had no legal duty to keep this information.

Why significant: Shows the DWP failing to keep track of whether recommendations made through its own peer reviews into the deaths of claimants were actually carried out.