Member

We understand that some of the concerns raised by the Government at this point relate to the DWP’s capacity to manage the workload involved in responding to requests for information, and, as the Minister has said to me in the past, to the risk of inadvertently disclosing material relating to live cases. These are legitimate operational challenges, but we know that they are not unique to the DWP. The PSFA will face precisely the same issues, yet it will be under the same “must” obligation that we propose should apply here. The difference, as we understand it, is simply that the DWP considers this requirement to be too much work. That is not an adequate reason to weaken oversight. If a department does not have the capacity to be overseen, it should build that capacity, not avoid the oversight altogether.