Dear Department for Work and Pensions,

1. Please provide all EBM / LiMA and any other guidelines / documents for the condition:

- CFS/ME, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
- Fatigue fun other causes including ideopathic fatigue
- Fibromyalgia
- Mental health conditions for which no other protocol / guidance exists
- Physical health conditions for which no other protocol / guidance exists.

2. And any other documents used for assessment of Employment Support Allowance or Personal Independence Payments.

3. Additionally, I noticed from the previous request https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/c... that CFS/ME protocol version 8 had significant redactions.

If redactions are made from any documents provided please provide the headings for redacted sections.

4. For all documents there is a "self-test" section including questions the person can use to check their understanding.

Please include both these questions and the correct answers - please note that the CFS/ME protocol version 1 did include this non-personal information so this must also be information the public is entitled to in version 8 or future versions of this protocol.

5. Please provide any timescales for expected future updates to the documents mentioned above

Yours faithfully,

Mx Slack

Dear DWP Health Services Correspondence,

Thank you for your recent response. It has taken some time to read. I do not feel my requests have been answered fully.

1. The CFS/ME document has numbered references but the references are not included in the document. Please provide the full list of numbers references - either from this document or from any other internal document that holds them. It is possible that only the author / more recent reviewer (name unknown) has the list of references, in which case they need to be asked to provide them. This is not a request for the individual's personal data or identity.

2. I do not accept the reasons for redactions from the information that I have requested.

* You claim that some of it may be commercially sensitive, yet it is basic medical information and does not relate to any funding attempts / bids, and is not substantial enough to be of any commercial value or to be sold in its own right. If you still believe some of the redacted information is commercially sensitive please highlight exactly which page numbers and headings this relates to, and why it is considered commercially sensitive?
Given that an earlier version of the same document was supplied without any redactions this argument is not supported and the whole document should be released.

* Secondly, it is not plausible that releasing the information such as answers to a self-test would give some assessors an unfair advantage on the course. A self-test is just that - only the assessor would be aware of their own answers and presumably they are already provided with a list of correct answers to check their results against.
The courses are training and not qualifications, there is no grading system and so no financial or career motivation for attempting to cheat, especially on a "self-test".

* It would appear extremely unrealistic to think an assessor/disability analyst would attempt to use FOI data to cheat on a training course, given that the assessors are all qualified professionals who are expected to uphold professional standards and ethics AND will have been given information with the correct information directly from the training.

* Fourth, some of these questions whose answers are redacted are fundamental to a basic understanding of CFS/ME. Surely, it is in the public interest to know whether the DWP's disability assessors regard CFS/ME as "entirely psychological in origin" (question 1), or "wholly physical in origin" (question 2)?

* Lastly, CFS/ME protocol v1 did disclose the full document without redactions so clearly there are no FOI exceptions applicable here.

Further information not yet received:
a. the EBM / LiMA documentation for Fibromyalgia
b. the EBM / LiMA documentation or protocol for physical conditions that do not have a dedicated document
c. the EBM / LiMA documentation or protocol for physical conditions that do not have a dedicated document
d. the EBM / LiMA documentation for Idiopathic Chronic Fatigue / Chronic Fatigue that is not part of CFS/ME

Please provide these, or state clearly which do not exist and what guidance / protocols should be followed in those cases?

Yours sincerely,,

I look forward to your response