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Child Support Agency

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) total and (b) full-time equivalent staff were involved in processing clerical Child Support Agency cases in each month since January 2005; and if he will make a statement. [122888]

Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the hon. Lady with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 19 April 2007:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) total and (b) full-time equivalent staff were involved in processing clerical Child Support Agency cases in each month since January 2005; and if he will make a statement. [122888]

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The number of fulltime equivalent staff working on clerical cases between January 2005 and January 2007 is provided in the attached table. Unfortunately we are unable to provide the total number of individual people involved in progressing clerical cases, as this information is not recorded.

In September 2006 the Agency transferred all of its clerical cases to the CSA Bolton site, managed by Vertex. By progressing clerical cases together in one location the Agency expects to deliver a much more efficient service to clients. CSA Bolton is currently processing over 26,000 Agency cases, and has delivered more than £7.5m in maintenance payments since its launch in September 2006.

A number of Agency people continue to be involved in clerical case progression. Their roles include the transferral of clerical cases to the CSA Bolton office, aiding in clerical case complaint resolution, and sharing best practise with the Bolton office to ensure Agency clients receive a consistent level of service.

Unfortunately we are unable to provide information concerning the number of people employed by Vertex for the clerical progression of Agency cases. As such, the information provided covers only those Agency employees engaged in clerical case progression.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Month	Full - time equivalents processing clerical cases
January 2005	289
February 2005	300
March 2005	301
April 2005	389
May 2005	407
June 2005	431
July 2005	454
August 2005	436
September 2005	456
October 2005	439
November 2005	463
December 2005	546
January 2006	565
February 2006	560
March 2006	596
April 2006	595
May 2006	635
June 2006	620
July 2006	613
August 2006	605
September 2006	602
October 2006	511
November 2006	454
December 2006	92
January 2007	81

Departments: Internet

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps he is taking to improve the user-friendliness of his Department’s website. [130929]

Mrs. McGuire: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has a complete set of standards and guidelines on usability and accessibility on its websites. The standards are for information published on DWP internet and intranet sites. The guidelines are on strategic requirements, use of cascading style sheets,
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page length, the importance of accuracy, usability, accessibility and design when developing content.

DWP is committed to improving the accessibility of its own websites. All its sites are working towards complying with the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (W3C WCAG) at Level AA, in line with Cabinet Office guidance. Guidelines have been developed for site managers, and a testing and improvement programme is now in place. In a recent audit, 45 per cent. of DWP’s information sites passed automated checks for level AA.

User testing of the DWP site www.dwp.gov.uk will take place in May 2007 and the results will be fed into making further improvements to the site.

Departments: Public Appointments

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the former hon. Members who left Parliament in 2005 who have since been appointed to public bodies by his Department, broken down by party; and who was responsible for making each appointment. [130144]

Mrs. McGuire: Information about the political activity of appointees is recorded and publicised in accordance with the Independent Commissioner for Public Appointments’ Code of Practice. This shows that no former hon. Members who left Parliament in 2005 have since been appointed to public bodies sponsored by the Department.

Lone Parents

Mr. Rooney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many lone parents have had a benefit sanction for failure to attend a work focused interview in each of the last four years; what proportion of booked work focused interviews for lone parents resulted in a sanction in each of the last four years; and what research his Department has undertaken on the impact of sanctions on lone parents on their subsequent moves into employment. [116900]

Mr. Jim Murphy [holding answer 19 January 2007]: The available information on the number of lone parent work focused interviews booked, and number and percentage of benefit sanctions applied, is in the table.

Lone parent work focused interview (WFI) benefit sanctions
Year WFI was first booked	Number of WFIs booked	Number of sanctions applied	Percentage of booked WFIs sanctioned
April 2002-March 2003	338,800	5,600	1.7
April 2003-March 2004	603,100	14,300	2.4
April 2004-March 2005	770,100	31,800	4.1
April 2005-March 2006	908,300	40,300	4.4
Note: Data exclude quarterly WFIs which were introduced nationally from October 2005 for lone parents whose youngest child is aged 14 and over as this administrative data are not yet available for analysis. Source: Labour Market Service evaluation databases.

We plan to carry out research into the impact of benefit sanctions on lone parents on their subsequent moves into employment.

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