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The Tory government is fighting to keep details of hated fit-for-work tests secret - because releasing them would hurt firms' 'commercial interests'.

Officials have launched an extraordinary taxpayer-funded legal battle to stop a report on Work Capability Assessments (WCA) becoming public.

Campaigners say the tests, which decide if people are sick or disabled enough to get benefits, are deeply flawed despite costing £200m a year.

More than 2,500 people have died shortly after being declared fit for work. Others have included one woman with an incurable flesh-eating disease and another who could barely climb stairs.

Yet the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is refusing to publish an 'outcome report' by the private firms that run the tests.

(Image: WENN)

The DWP claims releasing the report, which contains monthly performance details from each testing centre, could give a "perception of under-performance" when read out of context.

This would "damage the reputation and financial standing of the companies involved," officials claim.

The tests are run by a firm called Centre for Health and Disability Assessments, which is itself run by outsourcing giant Maximus.

Before that the tests were run by controversial welfare-to-work firm Atos.

The DWP claims itself, Maximus and Atos are all likely to have their commercial interests "prejudiced" if the report is released because its data goes back to 2011.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

A watchdog rejected the DWP's claims in a damning ruling more than four months ago and ordered it to release the report.

The Information Commissioner slammed the DWP for "barely explaining" how private firms would be hit, adding: "The Commissioner is not persuaded that there is a real likelihood that disclosure of the withheld information would dissuade these companies from entering into future contracts with the government."

But the DWP is now appealing that ruling to a legal tribunal, dragging out the case until at least November.

(Image: Getty)

The battle was triggered by a Freedom of Information request from project manager and freedom of information campaigner John Slater.

The 52-year-old told the Mirror: "It's disappointing when the Commissioner issued such a blunt decision and they've not backed up their arguments at all."

The DWP fought a previous case protecting welfare-to-work firms' 'commercial interests' all the way to the Court of Appeal and lost, costing taxpayers £100,000 in legal fees.

A DWP spokesman said: "This information is exempt from disclosure under FOI rules as it covers commercial interests.

"We publish a range of information on WCA outcomes, including at a regional level.”

Maximus and Atos had not returned requests for comment at the time of publication. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by the two firms in the Information Commissioner's report.