the training curriculum was set by the DWP and duly followed by Atos, stating: "We do not deviate from government guidelines in our training". Ministerial response The Employment Minister was asked by the BBC about the allegations of bias but he replied with a general explanation of the principles underpinning the Incapacity Benefit reassessment programme. Tom Greatrex MP wrote to the Prime Minister to bring to his attention the whistleblower's allegations that the core assessment was "skewed against the claimant". Downing Street made no reply but simply passed the letter back to the DWP, which issued a non-specific statement. In July, the former assessor gave an interview to The Guardian. In it, he described how he had first heard trainers advocating the "bogus" interpretations of the test's descriptors in 2011 during a one-day conversion course covering the new version of the WCA and its new criteria. In response to the article's description of auditors instructing assessors — at the point when a report of a face-to-face assessment had been written, but had not yet been sent to the DWP — to alter their reports and reduce the number of points awarded, Atos said: Reaction from Atos auditors Some assessors with several years' experience of carrying out disability assessments were chosen by Atos to audit the work of their colleagues. Their main role was to give feedback to new recruits who had passed their initial classroom training but who had not yet been accredited by the DWP and allowed to 'fly solo'. Auditors would also check the reports of accredited assessors, if the assessors were putting more claimants than expected into the Support Group - a process known as "targeted audit". Although the whole of a report would be broadly scrutinised, the thrust of an audit was to ensure that the report had been written according to the standards stipulated by the firm's customer - the DWP - and largely focussed on three things: The report should include as many examples as possible of activities taken from the claimant's description of their day-to-day life that corroborated the points score awarded by the assessor The summary should be an overview of the whole report and should try to explain how the recommendation on fitness for work had been reached The assessor's interpretation of the test's criteria should match that taught in training. Explanation In August, the whistleblower expanded on his allegations in