What is a Grand Committee, and what does it mean for Welfare Reform?

DPAC

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What is a Grand Committee and what does it mean for Welfare Reform? Posted: 15 Sep 2011 07:18 AM PDT After all the fuss of the Welfare Reform Bill in the house of lords yesterday I wasn’t expecting much for a couple of weeks when it will reach committee stage. However, I woke up today to find that the government had tabled a motion in the lords to send the bill to the grand committee, held in a side room. This is in fact the normal procedure for legislation moving through parliament. The committee stage is where the bill is examined line-by-line and objections from the debate at the second reading turn into amendments to the bill before it goes back to the house for the report stage and the third reading. Parliament’s own web page states: Any Bill can be referred to a Committee of the whole House but the procedure is normally reserved for finance Bills and other important, controversial legislation. So you can see, controversial bills are supposed to be debated by a “committee of the whole house” rather than a “grand committee.” As one lord stated in the debate today, no one can argue that this legislation is not controversial. The peers have stated over and over again during debate that they have been inundated with letters, emails, and phone calls from people concerned about this bill. They show surprise at the scale of concern shown to them. Unfortunately, despite a heated debate this afternoon in the end the lords voted 263 to 211 to pass the motion and move the bill to the Grand Committee. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats voted for the motion, and Labour voted against it. Some of the reasons given were that it would block up the chamber and delay the passage of other bills, and that too many people would want to speak in the debate and it would take too long. (Yes, really! Democracy apparently takes too long.) One lady stated that several of the bills going through parliament are really three bills in one, and that of course it would take longer. (As an aside, I would urge you to look up Shock Doctrine for reasons as to why changes are being made so quickly.) The difference between the two options for committee stage are quite important, I think. Here’s the official description of the committee stage: Line by line examination of the Bill Detailed line by line examination of the separate parts (clauses and schedules) of the Bill takes place during committee stage. Any Member of the Lords can take part. Committee stage can last for one or two days to eight or more. It usually starts no fewer than two weeks after the second reading. Before committee stage takes place The day before committee stage starts, amendments are published in a Marshalled List – in which all the amendments are placed in order. Amendments on related subjects are grouped together and a list (“groupings of amendments”) is published on the day. What happens at committee stage? Every clause of the Bill has to be agreed to and votes on the amendments can take place. All proposed amendments (proposals for change) can be discussed and there is no time limit – or guillotine – on discussion of amendments. What happens after committee stage? If the Bill has been amended it is reprinted with all the agreed amendments. At the end of committee stage, the Bill moves to report stage for further examination. Here is the critical part though: Grand Committee The proceedings are identical to those in a Committee of the Whole House except that no votes may take place. As compared to: Committee of the whole House In the House of Lords the committee stage of a Bill usually takes place in the Lords Chamber and any Member can take part. The Committee may choose to vote on any amendment and all Members present can vote. So you can see, apart from being in a less-accessible room, with space for far fewer peers to discuss the bill and no public gallery, sending a bill to the Grand Committee also means that the amendments cannot be voted on individually. I think, on the whole, this can be viewed as a bad thing. Even worse, though; in the Committee Of The Whole Chamber, voting on amendments would enable a majority vote to fix some of the worse points. Instead, the Grand Committee must agree unanimously on an amendment which means that just one person siding with the government can block any attempt to fix this bill. However, please keep sending your messages to peers. They have noticed our objections, and we can’t let up now. Details are on my blog.

The Assessment

The Assessment

....is dedicated to Atos Origin, the company employed by the government 

to throw sick people off benefits. This may seem a stark 'assessment' of 

their role, but as they get paid a bonus for each person found 'fit to work' it 

is the plain truth. The fact that most of these people, if they have the energy 

and nerve to appeal, get their benefit reinstated barely gets reported. Nor 

does the anecdotal evidence from GPs that they have had terminally ill 

patients declared 'fit to work'. My concern is that the tests used in these 

assessments are uniquely unfair to people with mental illness, as they 

may well be physically able to lift a full kettle and walk 20 yards but are 

not able to work and are also unable to state their case because of their 

illness. Please contact your MP and ask for a government rethink about 

the way these assessments are carried out, an investigation into the 

terms of the Atos contract and special measures to protect the mentally 

ill from unfair treatment.




We’ve decided that you’re fit enough to work.

  

We’ve decided to increase your medication

We’ve decided that you’ve started to self harm

We’ve decided that you need an intervention

We’ve decided you’re a danger to yourself

We’ve decided that you really should be sectioned...

We’ve decided that you’re fit enough to work.

This is taken from the Blog 'not averse to verse':

http://notaversetoverse.blogspot.com/2011/02/assessment.html?spref=tw

Urgent Call To Action!

Dear Subscriber,

The usual newsletter will be out on Friday, after our August break.

However, we have just received several emails from organisations including Carer Watch and The Broken of Britain about what is claimed to be government attempts to stifle opposition to the Welfare Reform Bill currently being debated in the House of Lords..  

There is no time for us to check out the accuracy of these claims – the deadline for doing anything is 3.30pm today - but as the issue is potentially an important one we are passing it on to you, unverified though it is.  There are several email addresses at the end of the article of people to contact.

Urgent call to action
After an incredibly constructive debate yesterday in the House Of Lords the government appear to be concerned about how many Lords had significant concerns about the Welfare Reform Bill, even those Lords who in principle supported the bill had major questions they wanted answers to.

For a bill of this size and importance, convention dictates that the next stage of the bill should be kept in the main chamber of the House of Lords for debate. It's particularly important the bill be continued to be debated in the main chamber as disability access to the smaller committee rooms is very limited and people will not be able to access the committee rooms to exercise their democratic right to observe the passge of the bill from the public chamber.

At 3.30pm today the govermnent are tabling a motion to move the grand committee stage of the bill into one of the smaller committee rooms. Presumably the government are hoping that by moving a bill into the committee rooms it will be harder to scrutinise - there won't be enough space in any of the committee rooms to allow for all the Lords to participate, let alone for us to scrutinise online or attend in person.

This is an outrage - the government are clearly concerned by the level of queries and opposition to the Welfare Reform Bill highlighted by yesterday's debate and wish to quietly sideline it to a committee room where they hope it will pass with less opposition. Tabling the motion for the afternoon following PMQ's is also an underhand trick as it means it will be harder for us to object through the main stream media.

This is our call to arms. This bill affects us, our families and every aspect of our lives, as well as the lives of those currently paying into the system in anticipation of protection should they require it. If we can make enough noise in the next few hours the government will be forced to keep the passage of the bill in the main chamber of the house of lords where it can be effectively and appropriately scrutinised by all.

What you can do to help is this:

Please post copies of this blog onto your facebook, your twitter, stumbleupon, wikio etc. Please email it to everyone you know, please talk about this on your own blogs. Email or phone your MP to register your objections, email or phone the house of lords to explain your concerns, email or phone the media, local or national and explain that whether or not people are in favour of this bill, that it is a fundamental democratic right to have it debated in the main chamber of the house of lords where there is space for all who wish to attend and observe. Highlight the injustice and hypocrisy of the governments behaviour in trying to sideline this important bill into a room too small for all the Lords to attend and certainly too small to allow those in wheelchairs, or with guide dogs, the very people most affected by this bill to be able to observe from the public gallery.

If we make enough noise before 3.30pm today the government will have to drop this underhand tactic and the Bill will continue to be debated in the main chamber of the House of Lords where everyone who wishes to can attend and observe.

UPDATE 13.30
The email addresses to contact are:

anelayj@parliament.uk – this is the chief whip to whom you should send the email and cc it to the others.
bassams@parliament.uk – opposition chief whip.
freudd@parliament.uk – David Freud

You can read the original post on the Broken of Britain blog.


PLEASE PASS ME ON
Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested. You are also welcome to reproduce this newsletter on your blog, website, forum or newsletter.

Good luck,

Steve Donnison

Benefits and Work Publishing Ltd
Company registration No.  5962666

If you’re not already a member, find out how to subscribe to Benefits and Work and give yourself the best possible chance of getting the right decision.

 

An Open Letter To Atos Healthcare

AN OPEN LETTER TO ATOS HEALTHCARE Posted: 12 Sep 2011 02:14 PM PDT The following letter has been sent to Atos Healthcare. Copies have also been sent to The Guardian, The Independent, The Morning Star, The Times, The Financial Times, Newsweek & the Daily Mail. It is written in response to Atos Healthcare’s misuse of the libel laws in a bid to silence their many many critics, especially those who have spoken openly about their bad experiences of the Work Capability Assessment. The original post Atos objected to can be found at http://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/atos-mach-frei-atos-origin-team-up-with-gas-chamber-firm/ AN OPEN LETTER TO ATOS HEALTHCARE Lisa Coleman General Manager for the DWP Contracts Atos Healthcare 4 Triton Square Regent’s Place London, NW1 3HG Dear Ms Coleman, We the undersigned individuals and groups are seriously concerned by the fact that Atos Healthcare, the provider of the Work Capability Assessment for sickness benefits, has threatened legal action against the Internet hosting companies of three websites which circulated letters from sickness benefit claimants – ‘Carerwatch’, ‘After Atos’ and ‘Atos Register of Shame’ (now relaunched as ‘A### the Truth’). These websites have given members of society who are often isolated and have traditionally found it difficult to take joint action, the chance to come together and share their experiences. We find it unacceptable that a large IT company, which receives £100m per year for their assessment of claimants, has deployed their legal department against individuals or small organisations who dared to circulate people’s comments and concerns about their treatment at Atos’ hands. As acknowledged by both the recent Harrington Report and the Work and Pensions Select Committee, the Work Capability Assessment implemented by Atos Healthcare was found to be mechanistic and Atos’ ‘medical reports’ far too often did not reflect circumstances and discussions that had taken place during the assessments (Harrington Report, pp. 40-41). In addition, ESA claimants have now been told that twelve doctors working for Atos face being struck off for improper conduct, and other members of Atos’ staff are under investigation over allegations of obscene criticism of benefit claimants. Atos Healthcare has given assurances that the shortcomings identified by the Harrington Report are being addressed. Yet many claimants are still experiencing the distress of poor and rushed medical assessments based on Atos Healthcare’s computer programme. Amid growing concern that Atos Healthcare is failing to raise its methods and professionalism to acceptable standards, the company is now attempting to silence those claimants and their small organisations who have had the courage to speak up. At a time when we see that major corporations such as News International are able to use the threat of legal action to hide their wrongdoings, it is important that Atos’ actions are brought to account. It is also the case that government bodies are unable to sue for libel. Atos’ argument is that they are taking legal action to protect their business reputation, but in this case they are performing the work of the DWP, and receiving public money for doing it. For these reasons, we ask that Atos withdraw all threats of libel action, that they publicly guarantee that they will not in future use the libel laws to close down criticism of their practices, and that they make a public apology to those individuals and websites which they have tried to silence. Yours truly Brighton Benefits Campaign Brighton & Hove TUC Unemployed Centre Caroline Lucas MP Amanda Sebestyen Writer Paul Smith Atos Victims Group Holly Smith (President) Brighton and Hove Trades Union Council Brighton Keep Our NHS Public Brighton Stop the Cuts Coalition Brighton Disabled People Against Cuts Ipswich Unemployed Action Disabled People Against Cuts False Economy Southampton United for Pensions and Public Services National Coalition for Independent Action Redhill Coalition Against Cuts Lewes Stop the Cuts Art Uncut DLA Help Group The Broken of Britain WinVisible (Women With Visible and Invisible Disabilities) Suffolk Coalition for Public Services Queer Resistance Newport Trades Union Council Cornwall Anti Cuts Alliance Cornwall Disabled People Against Cuts Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group cross posted from Brighton Benefits Campaign