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Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what payment has been made to the contractor who supplied the Child Support Agency's updated IT system; and if he will make a statement. [53739]
Mr. Plaskitt:
The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Mr. Stephen Geraghty. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
16 Mar 2006 : Column 2454W
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive is currently unavailable as he is communicating the Operational Improvement Plan to all Agency staff, I am therefore responding on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what payment has been made to the contractor who supplied the Child Support Agency's updated IT system; and if he will make a statement.
The Child Support Agency's new IT system (CS2) was provided by Electronic Data Systems (EDS) under the Child Support Reform (CSR) contract for IT services. The Agency's administrative accounts confirm charging of £133 million for the delivery and operation of CS2 between January 2003 and August 2005 under the CSR contract.
In August 2005, the Department agreed a general realignment of its IT contracts with EDS. As part of this realignment from August 2005 the Agency no longer receives invoices from EDS, instead the Department is charged centrally. The Department's businesses are currently agreeing the accounting methodology and principles for recharging EDS costs. Information on charging for CS2 since August 2005 will be available after the financial year end when the Agency's accounts are compiled and audited.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many current Child Support Agency cases are regarded as linked cases; and what his definition is of a linked case. [54237]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member.
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. As the Chief Executive is currently on leave, I am responding on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many current CSA cases are regarded as linked cases; and what is his definition of a linked case.
Relevant links are ones where the new application will have a financial impact on the linked case. This will occur when either the non-resident parent or the parent with care in a new scheme application is also the non-resident parent or parent with care in another case.
Non-relevant links are ones which will not affect the calculation, such as an address already held on file as one previously occupied by an existing or former client.
When a new child support application is made, one or more links may be established to existing cases. If a link is established to one or more cases on the old system (CSCS), then these will be transferred to the new computer system (CS2), along with any further cases that are linked to this chain. This is known as reactive migration. Where the links are relevant (as defined above), the old scheme cases in question will also be converted to the new scheme. This is called reactive conversion.
It is not currently possible to say how many old scheme cases have links to other old scheme cases, and neither is it possible to say how many new scheme cases have links to other new scheme cases. Information is, however, available for old scheme cases with links to new scheme cases.
There were 305,000 old scheme cases on the new computer system (CS2). These are cases that have been reactively migrated due to being linked to new scheme cases.
Of those old scheme cases that had been reactively migrated from the old system to the new system, we estimate that around 35,000 cases had relevant links to new scheme cases and have now been converted. We estimate that a further 50,000 cases also have relevant links and are currently awaiting conversion.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what (a) national and (b) local targets have been set for call centre performance on (i) the legacy Child Support Computer System and (ii) the new CS2 system in the Child Support Agency; and what the performance against such targets has been for each measurement period within the last three years for which data is available. [54240]
Mr. Plaskitt:
The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
16 Mar 2006 : Column 2456W
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. As the Chief Executive is currently on leave, I am responding on his behalf.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what (a) national and (b) local targets have been set for call centre performance on (i) the legacy Child Support Computer System and (ii) the new CS2 system in the Child Support Agency; and what the performance against such targets has been for each measurement period within the last three years for which data is available.
In addition, there are a further two targets that are internal to the National Helpline (the Agency's telephony service). These are:
The Agency has seven call centres, based in Dudley, Hastings, Falkirk, Plymouth, Birkenhead, Belfast and Liverpool. Telephony targets apply at local and national level, and performance against these is shown in the attached tables.
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 10 January 2006, Official Report, column 611W, on the Child Support Agency, what targets are in place for the processing of the backlog of applications. [45646]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of the 10th January 2006 Official Report column 611W on the Child Support Agency what targets are in place for the processing of the backlog of applications.
Between January and December 2005, the number of outstanding un-cleared potential applications across both the old and the new schemes fell by 10 per cent, from over 362,000 to 327,000 (figures rounded to the nearest thousand).
Volumes of uncleared new scheme applications have stabilised and are no longer growing. Indeed, they fell by 2 per cent. between April and December 2005, standing at 259,000 at the end of the period.
In the Operational Improvement Plan announced by the Secretary of State on 9th February 2006, the Agency set itself the target of reducing the backlog of applications to the point where, by March 2009, 80% of applications will be cleared within 12 weeks and there will be no backlog in this area.
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