Demand your Atos assessment is recorded

The following is an extract from the WCA Handbook.

4.1.3 Audio and video taping of examinations

At the present time, the DWP are considering their position on the issue of audio taping of assessments following the publication of the “Harrington Report” in 2010. In this report, one of Professor Harrington’s recommendations was that there should be a pilot and evaluation involving the audio taping of assessments.

Until this evaluation has taken place and further guidance is issued, should a claimant attend the assessment requesting permission to either audio or videotape the medical assessment you should politely refuse on the following grounds:

The Department for Work and Pensions does not require that a medical assessment for the purpose of advising on entitlement to state sickness or disability benefits be recorded on audio or videotape.

Such a claimant request can only be agreed with the prior consent of the examining practitioner, and then only if stringent safeguards are in place to ensure that the recording is complete, accurate, and that the facility is available for simultaneous copies to be made available to all parties present. The recording must be made by a professional operator, on equipment of a high standard, properly calibrated by a qualified engineer immediately prior to the recording being made.

The equipment must have facility for reproduction so that a copy of the tape can be retained by all parties.

The responsibility for meeting the cost of the above requirement rests with the claimant.

Any request by a claimant for an assessment to be audio or videotaped must be declined unless the above safeguards are in place. The claimant must instead be offered the opportunity of a rescheduled assessment in the presence of a companion or other witness. If the claimant refuses to avail him/her self of this opportunity and refuses to proceed with the assessment, the practitioner should return the file to the Department for Work and Pensions with an ESA 85A min explaining the situation.

Unauthorised taping
It is for Atos Healthcare, in conjunction with their legal advisers, to determine the action to be taken in the event of a claimant making an audio or video recording without the prior knowledge and consent of the examining practitioner, or without ensuring that the safeguards defined above are in place.

MSHusband wrote:

IANAL but have repeatedly come across the advice that evidence of any conversation (in person, or via phone) needs to be submitted in writing (i.e. as a transcript) which a recording can then be used to validate.

The issue, which is untested, is that the conversation can only be disclosed to a third party with the explicit permission of all parties to that conversation.

Gordon