Mr. Tim Duggan:

The following might help to clarify matters. There is something of a misunderstanding of test cases. We do not use that phrase any more. Essentially these were sample cases at the time when a particular sector was being looked at and efforts were made to try to streamline the process to get greater administrative efficiency in the making of decisions for people. That does not change any of the things that we said about principles. All decisions are individual. Anybody at any time can seek a review or an appeal of such a decision, and can use the various mechanisms that the chief appeals officer has set out for that appeal, namely, sections 317 and 318. They can subsequently move on to the courts, if they so wish. There is no precedential value at all to the sample cases that were examined in the 1990s, in the sense that anyone look for their case to be dealt with individually.

What happened in 2001 was not a change of policy, because the policy was exactly what I have just said, all along. What happened from 2001 on was that a greater rigour was put into how people would know about these things. The working group's negotiations resulted ultimately in the first version of the code of practice, which subsequently was revised following further consideration in 2007 and is now being further revised, as we speak, because of developments in the case law since 2007.