17 September 2015

Information commissioner rejects complaint about DWP refusal to release peer reviews, supporting DWP’s’ response that this would breach data protection.

What: The information commissioner rejects a complaint from Disability News Service about DWP’s refusal to release copies of the 49 peer reviews. It finds that DWP was right in relying on section 123 of the Social Security Administration Act, which says that DWP staff are not allowed to disclose information about a person which they obtained through their job. It also rejects the possibility of redacting information from the documents that would prevent identification of the claimants.

Why significant: The watchdog’s decision – which will later be proved to be wrong in law (see 11 April 2016) – allows DWP to continue to hide all information from its peer reviews.