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East End of Glasgow
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
SR investigation
The disturbing truth
about a company embraced
by Nicola Sturgeon
Kenneth Roy
It’s officially ‘great news’ and we have the deputy first minister’s word for that. The great news is that an ‘international IT services company’ called Atos, French-owned, has been named as a principal sponsor of the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Nicola Sturgeon’s justification for this claim is that the support of Atos will ‘ensure that the IT at Glagow 2014 is among the best in the world’. She is, however, Scotland’s health secretary as well as Alex Salmond’s deputy, and it would be very strange if she was unaware of the extreme concerns surrounding that branch of the operation known as Atos Healthcare.
One of these concerns is its enthusiasm for closing down public debate on its own shortcomings. The Scottish Review would almost certainly be sued if we used the company’s logo in illustrating this piece. Criticising Atos also risks legal action; several websites have already been taken down by hosting companies in response to threats.
Perhaps this explains why the Scottish mainstream press so meekly covered the ‘great news’ announced by Nicola Sturgeon and chose to regurgitate the official press release more or less unaltered. Atos must be happy about the positive vibes of the last few weeks: the unqualified blessing of Scotland’s SNP government, the personal endorsement of its health secretary, acres of uncritical press. The favourable PR could even be celebrated as a revival of the Auld Alliance. No doubt it will be at some stage.
Great news, indeed. Not so great news, however, for the many thousands of vulnerable people who are currently undergoing disability assessments by the new sponsors of Glasgow 2014.
The number of disabled people judged fit for work has risen substantially, in line with the Cameron goverment’s harsh requirements. But how many of these decisions are just?
The number of ESA tribunals, at which appeals against assessments are heard, is rocketing. In 2010-11, of the 127,000 appeals, 47,600 were successful. There is another way of putting this. In 47,600 cases, the Atos assessment was held to be wrong. In 47,600 cases needless distress was caused to disabled people. Why is the UK government apparently indifferent to this scandal? Why is Atos not penalised for it? And why are Cameron and his work and pensions secretary Duncan Smith (who once took such a close interest in the welfare of the Glasgow poor) paying no heed to an independent review which concluded: ‘There is strong evidence that the system can be impersonal and mechanistic, that the process lacks transparency and that a lack of communication between the various parties involved contributes to poor decision-making and a high rate of appeals’. This indictment does nothing for the humane reputation of the medical profession – or for the credibility of the Westminster government.
There are many individual testimonies about the impact of Atos assessments on the lives of disabled people. This is the material which Atos is most anxious to discourage, no doubt because it gives a powerful human dimension to the statistics. Much of it – which used to appear on forums run for and by disabled people – is no longer accessible on the internet as a result of legal threats. Citizens Advice Scotland wants to know why Atos is so keen to suppress public criticism of its work. ‘Why,’ it asks, ‘does Atos not address the very legitimate concerns that are being raised?’.
Nicola Sturgeon talks of ‘great news’ for Glasgow 2014. The chief executive of the Commonwealth Games has said that the Atos sponsorship deal ‘demonstrates the company’s commitment to sport’. Like so much else connected with these games, it is all so much guff. Scotland’s health secretary has got her priorities wrong. ‘Ensuring that the IT at Glagow 2014 is among the best in the world’ is not a priority. Instead she should examine how many people in the east end of Glasgow, supposed beneficiaries of this 10-day party, are victims of the system.
That won’t be great news.
Kenneth Roy is editor of the Scottish Review
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