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26 Jun 2007 : Column 686W

Child Support Agency’s actual and forecast net administration costs and maintenance collections for the years 1994-95 to 2007-08
£ million
	Annual agency net administration costs	Total maintenance collected and arranged (see note 7)	Estimated value of maintenance direct arrangements in place m (see note 8)
2007-08	570.00	970.00	310.00
2006-07	520.34	882.6	276.9
2005-06	465.22	828.5	234.3
2004-05	425.59	793.2	208.5
2003-04	451.60	794.7	214.2
2002-03	428.90	572.55	—
2001-02	361.90	528.45	—
2000-01	298.30	502.55	—
1999-00	266.70	460.68	—
1998-99	231.20	393.38	—
1997-98	225.90	306.16	—
1996-97	224.50	213.21	—
1995-96	199.30	134.45	—
1994-95	192.40	74.20	—
Notes: 1. The increase in administration costs over 3 years from April '06 is as a result of the extra £120 million costs associated with the Operational Improvement Plan. 2. We are unable to provide figures for 1993-94, as audited accounts were not published for that year and as such the information is not available. 3. Information from 1994-95 to 2005-06 is sourced from the Child Support Agency’s published Annual Report and Accounts, and differ slightly from the published QSS which uses monthly figures, not subjected to yea-end adjustment. 4. In 2005-06, following national Audit Office advice, the Agency’s accounting boundaries were changed to include Child Support Reform Programme costs in the Agency’s annual accounts. The 2005-06 accounts and the 2004-05 comparatives were changed accordingly. In line with this policy the table below includes Child Support Reform costs from 1999-00. 5. The 2006-07 net administration costs and maintenance collections may be subject to change and will be confirmed when the audited accounts are published in July 2007. 6. The 2007-08 estimate for maintenance collections is consistent with the published Agency target to collect or arrange £970 million of maintenance outcomes. The residual £310 million in maintenance will be delivered via private arrangements outside of the Agency’s collection service. 7. Total maintenance collected and arranged from 1994 to 2003 does not include maintenance direct. 8. Maintenance Direct figures are sourced from Table 19.5 of the Quarterly Statistical Supplement. Maintenance Direct information is only available from April 2003 onwards. 9. The amount of maintenance received is that collected via the CSA collection service. This includes both clerical and system payments. 10. Monthly amounts of maintenance collected will not sum to the financial year figures published in the Annual Accounts as they do not include end year adjustments. 11. The value of Maintenance Direct arrangements in place shows the value of the assessments that the Agency has made i.e. the recommended amount to be paid to the Parent With Care by the non-resident parent. This value is an estimate because it is not possible to calculate, for every day of the year, the value of Maintenance Direct arrangements in place at that point in time. However, it is possible to calculate the value of weekly Maintenance Direct arrangements in place at the end of each month and derive a full monthly estimate from that. 12. Money relating to Maintenance Direct arrangements is not collected directly by the Agency. As such, the arrangement in place is the best estimate of the money being paid by the Non-Resident Parent. 13. Figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1 million.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many liability orders the Child Support Agency (a) applied for and (b) obtained in each (i) year and (ii) quarter since 1997; how many of the original orders were inaccurate; and if he will make a statement. [145372]

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.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 26 June 2007:

In reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions regarding 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 liability orders the Child Support Agency (a) applied for and (b) obtained in each (i) year and (ii) quarter since 1997; how many of the original orders have been inaccurate; and if he will make a statement.

26 Jun 2007 : Column 687W

Due to the arrangements for assigning a court hearing date, the Agency may make an application for a liability order during one reporting year which has a court date assigned for the next therefore I have given the granted liability orders for a year only.

Information about the numbers of liability order granted is only available since March 1998. Table 1 attached, shows the information requested since April 1998. We do not routinely collate information with regard to civil enforcement processes on a quarterly basis, so this information is unavailable at this time.

To ensure the Agency applies for an appropriate Liability Order, a number of management checks are undertaken prior to a Liability Order application being made, including the provision of an account audit. In a small percentage of cases the Agency may identify a case where a Liability Order has been granted but subsequently discovered an issue, which requires remedial action before further civil proceedings can be considered. These may be procedural steps, including dealing with new information received as well as numerical inaccuracies. This information is set out in the attached Table 2.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Table 1: Numbers of Liability Orders granted in each year from April 1998 to January 2007
	Liability Orders granted
April 1998-March 1999	2,033
April 1999-March 2000	2,523
April 2000-March 2001	1,755
April 2001-March 2002	1,427
April 2002-March 2003	2,383
April 2003-March 2004	3,885
April 2004-March 2005	*7,760
April 2005-March 2006	*11,245
February 2006-January 2007	*13,335
Notes: 1. A liability order is a document obtained from the court showing that they legally recognise that the debt is owing. This is the same in both England and Wales and Scotland. This is required before the Agency can use litigation powers (Diligence in Scotland). 2. The figures marked with an asterix* are sourced from the Agency’s Quarterly Summary Statistics. Prior to April 2004, the figures given were clerically collated and are actual figures, not subject to rounding. 3. Figures sourced from the Agency’s Quarterly Summary Statistics are rounded to the nearest five. 4. The figures for 2006-07 are from February 2006 to January 2007 and these are the latest figures published available.

Table 2: Liability Orders—further Agency work required
Quarterly period	Percentage
April-June 2004	2.5
July-September 2004	2.9
October-December 2004	2.6
January-March 2005	2.7
April-June 2005	3.5
July-September 2005	2.5
October-December 2005	1.3
January-March 2006	2.6
April-June 2006	2.3
July-September 2006	1.5
October-December 2006	1.2
January-March 2007	1.9
Note: Although the software for recording data was introduced in 2003, robust information did not become available until April 2004 following remedial work by the Agency.

26 Jun 2007 : Column 688W

Children Support Agency: Manpower

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total staff numbers at the Child Support Agency were in each quarter since 1997; what he expects the total staff numbers at the agency to be in each quarter to 2010; and if he will make a statement. [145363]

Mr. Plaskitt: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply given to an earlier response given to his Parliamentary Question 141934 and 141935, published in Hansard on 21 June 2007, Official Report, column 2216W.

Children: Maintenance

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what definition the Child Support Agency uses of unfair and inappropriate when it decides not to recover debt owed by a non-resident parent. [143581]

Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Gentleman with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 26 June 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, what definition the Child Support Agency uses of unfair and inappropriate when it decides not to recover debt owed by a non-resident parent.

The 1991 Child Support Act, (Section 29) gives the Agency a discretionary power in the collection of child support maintenance, although the Agency does not have the power to write off debt owed by non-resident parents. In cases where the Agency decides not to recover debt the Agency must show that this decision is reasonable (rather than inappropriate or unfair) taking into account the circumstances of each case.

The Agency has issued guidance, for cases where there are exceptional circumstances and where the Agency would consider not collecting debt. The circumstances are not proscribed but do include, for example, terminal illness or death of a non-resident parent, parent with care or qualifying child, cases where the non-resident parent is in prison, hospital or residential care or where the parentage of the qualifying child is under dispute.

Unless there is a good reason not to do so, every effort will be made to ensure the non-resident parent fulfills their duty to pay child maintenance.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the proportion of the £3.5 billion debt owed to parents with care which was due to official delay or error. [143582]

Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Gentleman with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 26 June 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.

26 Jun 2007 : Column 689W

You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the proportion of the £3.5 billion debt owed to Parents with Care which was due to official delay or error.

The Agency is unable to identify how much, if any, of the gross debt balance of £3.5 billion has been caused by official delay in processing a maintenance application.

In addition, if an official error is subsequently identified in a non-resident parent’s assessment, any outstanding debt is reassessed and adjusted as necessary.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many parents with care were affected by a fully or partially non-compliant non-resident parent in each year since 1997. [143591]

Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Gentleman.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 26 June 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 parents with care were affected by either a fully or partially non compliant non resident parent in each year since 1997.

The information that you have requested is only available in respect of cases rather than parents with care, a parent with care or non-resident parent may have more than one case. Information on fully and partially non-compliant cases is set out in the attached table.

The first year of the Operational Improvement Plan focused on the reduction of the Agency’s uncleared applications. The Agency has substantially reduced the number of uncleared applications, which are at their lowest level since comparable records began in May 1999. The second year of the Operational Improvement Plan, will focus on Enforcement which will include greater focus on improving case compliance.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

The volumes of nil and partially compliant cases with a positive liability: 1997 to 2007
Quarter ending	Nil compliant	Partial compliant
February 1997	115,500	57,600
February 1998	116,100	63,100
February 1999	137,000	78,000
February 2000	144,100	82,100
February 2001	131,600	85,700
February 2002	119,600	77,400
March 2003	107,400	88,900
March 2004	123,200	86,900
March 2005	145,200	98,500
March 2006	148,900	129,000
March 2007	170,600	142,400
Notes: 1. Compliance of a case is measured over a three month period. If a case was open and classed as a collection service case at the end of the period, and within the period money was charged on the case but no money was collected, then the case is classed as nil compliant. If some, but not all, of the money charged was collected via the collection service, then the case is classed as partially compliant. If all of the money charged was collected via the collection service, then the case is classed as fully compliant. 2. Data as at end of March has been used from 2003 onwards. Data as at end of February has been used prior to this, as information for March is unavailable. 3. Volumes are rounded to the nearest 100.

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