Select Committee on Work and Pensions First Report

2 Core Tasks

Table 3: Liaison Committee criteria relevant to 2003 inquiries

10. Following a resolution of the House of May 2002, the Liaison Committee has determined that select committees should be encouraged to perform a number of 'core tasks'. These are to carry out inquiries into (a) Government policy proposals, (b) areas seen to require examination because of deficiencies, (c) departmental actions, (d) associated public bodies (of the Department), (e) major appointments, and (f) implementation of legislation and major policy initiatives. The Liaison Committee also proposed that details be given of the examination of any draft legislation, expenditure and performance against Public Service Agreement targets. An analysis of our performance of these core tasks is set out in Table 3.

Identification of Inquiries

Government Policy Proposals

11. HSC published two major strategies in 2000 - Revitalising Health and Safety and Securing Health Together. However, it concluded that more needed to be done and in 2004 a further Strategy for Workplace Health and Safety to 2010 and Beyond was published. Key themes in this new strategy included the need to forge greater strategic partnerships and to win 'hearts and minds' through effective communication and demonstration of the business and moral case for health and safety.[1] The Committee concluded that while there was little to fault such approaches, there was little tangible evidence of their success in improving the work environment for workers in the UK. The Committee believed there was strong evidence to support the view that inspection, backed up by formal enforcement action where necessary, is effective. In a context of limited resources, therefore, it was felt that 'the promotion of untested approaches that emphasise information and guidance in preference to inspection and enforcement flies in the face of existing evidence of what works.'[2]

Areas seen by the Committee as requiring examination because of deficiencies

12. In July 2003 a sub-committee was set up to look at a particular area of concern, that of the Department's IT. The Committee concluded that the Child Support Agency's IT system was unacceptable and that if it was not fully operational for new cases by 1 December 2004, then the CSA should outline its contingency plan and consider abandoning it. The Committee also made recommendations on how DWP should conduct future IT projects to avoid similar difficulties.

13. As well as the CSA's IT system the Committee is also examining the performance of the Agency since the child support reforms were introduced in March 2003, with particular emphasis on the compliance and enforcement regime. Current figures show that only 50% of new scheme cases are compliant, against a Ministerial target of 78%. The majority of cases (742,400) are still under the old scheme where 51% of cases are fully compliant, 26% are non-compliant and a further 24% are partially compliant. At previous evidence sessions with the Agency and the Department, the Committee has expressed strong concern about the enforcement regime, drawing particular attention to the Agency's reluctance to use enforcement powers, including the threat to withdraw driving licences from non-compliant parents. The Committee is due to report on this early in 2005.[3]

Departmental actions

14. An area of disappointment to the Committee has been in the communications from the Department. On several occasions the Department has failed to inform us of important publications and statements. For example two of these relate to our inquiry into the CSA where we were not informed of a report by the CSA Standards Committee and of a Ministerial Statement on the CSA progress report. We have commented on this aspect of our relationship with DWP in previous similar reports While the relationship at official level between the Committee's staff and the DWP Liaison officials is generally good, there does seem to be a consistent lack of co-ordination within DWP which leaves their liaison team ill-informed. The flow of information to the Committee should be first rate, supplying details of the publication of documents, statements in the House etc, wherever possible giving us advance warning in order to allow us to be properly briefed. The lack of such a first rate service has the potential adversely to affect the Committee's work. We again urge the Department, if necessary by direction from the highest level, to ensure that the Committee has appropriate information supplied at the earliest possible time. It would be unfortunate if the Committee found it necessary to terminate the long established procedure of giving similar advance notice of its work to the Department.

Associated Public Bodies

15. This year the Committee completed an inquiry into the Health and Safety Commission and the Health and Safety Executive (HSC/E). It examined whether the Government would meet targets set out in its 2000 Revitalising Health and Safety Strategy, which was meant to inject impetus into the health and safety agenda and ensure relevance for the changing world of work over the next 25 years. The Committee concluded that the HSE was a high quality organisation, for which there was strong support. However, it faces significant challenges, with changes in the world of work and a huge job to do to tackle occupational ill-health. Many of the Committee's concerns centred around inadequate resources and it recommended that the powers of workplace safety representatives should be strengthened.[4]

Major Appointments

16. It was in front of the Committee that the Secretary of State formally announced the retirement of the Chief Executive of the Child Support Agency, Doug Smith on 17 November 2004. The Committee has yet to be informed of his successor. We have not specifically been informed by DWP in advance of any appointments to posts in the department or in non-departmental public bodies. We recommend that the Department puts in place procedures to inform us in advance of all major appointments pending and/or made, in line with the recommendation of the Liaison Committee.

Implementation of legislation and major policy initiatives

17. The Committee's current inquiry into Pension Credit is examining the introduction of Pension Credit and the ability of the Pension Service to deliver it successfully. Pension Credit is part of the Government strategy to tackle pensioner poverty and came into force in October 2003.

18. The Health and Safety inquiry also looked at the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSWA) 1974 and subsequent legislation at national and European levels to examine how successful it had been in improving standards of health and safety. The Committee concluded that there was strong support for the current legislative structure. Its concerns centred around evidence as to the impact of a real-terms reduction in resources on HSE's capacity to ensure compliance with the legislation. It was also critical of the lack of progress made on commitments for legislative change made in Revitalising Health and Safety.[5]

19. The Committee and our predecessor Committee have paid close attention to the progress of the CSA in recent years. The current inquiry into the performance of the CSA aims to examine the progress of the Agency since the reforms were introduced in March 2003. The problems with the implementation of the new IT system upon which the new scheme operates are well documented and the Committee is particularly concerned about the progress of new scheme cases. The child support reforms simplified the scheme, resulting in a more transparent calculation and should have resulted in payments being made quickly. This has not been the case. A large backlog of cases has already built up and clients are experiencing long delays. In addition, the Agency has failed to meet its Ministerial targets on new scheme cases.

Draft Legislation

20. The Committee had been preparing to take part in the pre-legislative scrutiny of the Draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill in a joint exercise with the Home Affairs Select Committee this year. We are disappointed with the continuing delay to the draft Corporate Manslaughter Bill and we look forward to an early presentation of it.

Expenditure

21. The Committee receives Business Plans and Annual Reports for the Department and its Agencies. Due to the complex and specialist nature of these we have worked closely with the staff of the Scrutiny Unit. We held a one off evidence session with the Secretary of State, accompanied by the Group Human Resources Director and the Director of Strategy, Planning and Performance for the DWP to question them on the Departmental Report. During this evidence session the Secretary of State was questioned on the Spending Review, fraud and benefit error and the fact that the Department's accounts have been qualified by the National Audit Office for each of the last 13 years.

22. All five of the major inquiries the Committee have been pursuing this year have had an element of scrutiny of expenditure involved. The report on DWP's Management of IT projects particularly looked at finances as the Department has spent £4.25 billion on IT projects since 2001. The report focused on whether this spending on IT had fulfilled the Department's claims that it would lead to an improvement to the quality of the service while reducing unnecessary public expenditure through inefficiencies, fraud and errors.

Evidence from Ministers

23. In 2004 we have taken evidence from the Secretary of State on 3 occasions. We have also taken evidence from the Minister for Pensions, the Minister for Work and the Minister for Young People and Children. We are grateful to Ministers for attending our meetings and we trust that our good relationship with them will continue in 2005.

Public Service Agreements

24. Several of our inquiries examined aspects of the work of the Department which related to the Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets for example our inquiries into the Health and Safety Commission and Executive, Pension Credit and into Child Poverty.

25. In March 1999, when the child poverty rate stood at 4.2 million, the Prime Minister committed the Government to eradicating child poverty within a generation. In the shorter term, a target has been set to halve child poverty by 2010 and reduce it by a quarter by 2004-05. The Committee undertook an inquiry examining the effectiveness of the Government's anti-poverty strategy based on concerns that the medium-term target poses a particular challenge. We concluded that the Government's anti-poverty strategy, based on welfare-to-work and aided by economic growth, meant that the 2004-05 target would be met, but the 2010 target is a serious challenge. Concerted action is recommended to increase the employment opportunities for parents with disabilities; parents of disabled children; minority ethnic parents; and lone parents. We also recommended that the anti-poverty strategy needs to increase the income levels of those who may not be able to work, through increases in benefits and tax credit levels.

26. The Health and Safety inquiry concluded that there was no realistic prospect of the Department achieving its PSA targets for 2004 and that this lack of progress must inevitably raise questions about the present system's capacity to secure significant future improvements in standards of workplace health and safety . [6]

27. One of the aims of the current Pension Credit inquiry is to predict whether the Government will meet its PSA targets of paying at least 3 million pensioner households by 2006 and 3.2 million by 2008. DWP says it is on track to meet its 2006 target.[7]

28. The Departmental Report one-off evidence session examined the Department's performance against its PSA targets. Following advice from the Committee at last year's Departmental Report Session the DWP now illustrates how the PSA targets fit into the Department's organisational structure. Particular attention was paid in the questioning to the PSA targets for the CSA, Pensions and employment rates for disadvantaged groups.

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1   HSC (2004), A strategy for workplace health and safety in Great Britain to 2010 and beyond, London: HSE Books Back

2   HC456-1 para 291 Back

3   The report (HC44) was published on 25 January 2005 Back

4   HC456-1 para 290 Back

5   HC456-1 para 53-5 Back

6   HC456-1 para 50 Back

7   DWP Memorandum to the Pension Credit Inquiry, para 5.2 Back

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Prepared 10 February 2005