August 1995

What: The paper, written by Mansel Aylward and John LoCascio, argues that GPs are not needed when determining people’s fitness to work. From 1996 to April 2005 Aylward would become Chief Medical Adviser, Medical Director and Chief Scientist of the Department for Work and Pensions and its predecessor department, the Department of Social Security,  and is on the board of the Benefits Agency Medical Service in the 1990s. John LoCascio is a Vice President and Medical Director of US insurance company Unum.

Why significant: Calls for the creation of a new profession of ‘disability analysts’ – supposedly highly-trained specialists to assess disabled people’s fitness for work.