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    Courtesy Independent..............

    Value for money? Watchdog turns focus on Atos - the firm that tests people claiming sickness

    and disability benefits

    Atos Healthcare has been paid £754m for the tests since 2005

    Public spending watchdogs are to launch a new investigation into Atos Healthcare, the company

    that carries out controversial medical tests for people claiming sickness and disability benefits.

    The National Audit Office (NAO) move emerged as the Government disclosed that Atos has been

    paid £754m for the tests since 2005. It has also landed other government contracts, including

    IT work for the Home Office and Highways Agency.

    Lord Freud, the Welfare Reform Minister, revealed that annual spending on the medical services

    contract had risen from £73.3m in 2005-06 to £114.3m in the year to March. He said the

    increase in the budget is due to a rise in the number of tests.

    He was replying to a written House of Lords question this week by Lord Alton of Liverpool,

    a crossbench peer who asked the NAO to intervene.

    The NAO has told Lord Alton the extension of the Atos contract to a new benefits regime for the

    disabled is "an area of interest" to it and it has begun discussions with the Department for Work

    and Pensions (DWP).

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