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23 July 2007 : Column 721W—continued
Former Ministers
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Prime Minister if he will establish the practice of holding exit interviews with Ministers leaving the Government. [152055]
The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given to him by my predecessor (Mr. Blair) on 8 January 2007, Official Report, column 248W.
Government Bills
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Prime Minister what procedures were followed in relation to informing HM the Queen about the announcement of the draft legislative programme; and if he will make a statement. [150801]
The Prime Minister: Discussions with Her Majesty the Queen are not disclosed.
Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Prime Minister what (a) nuclear weapons reductions and (b) non-proliferation matters were discussed at his meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General on 11 July. [151250]
The Prime Minister: I discussed a wide range of issues with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during his recent visit.
I also refer the hon. Member to the press conference I held with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on 11 July. A transcript of this is available on the No. 10 website
and a copy has been placed in the Library of the House.
Official Residences
Norman Baker: To ask the Prime Minister (1) if he will make a statement on his plans for the future use of (a) Chequers and (b) the official residential properties used by ministers; [151267]
(2) who the present occupants are of (a) Chevening, (b) the flat above number 11 Downing Street, (c) the flat in 1 Carlton Gardens, (d) Flat 1 in Admiralty House, (e) Flat 2 in Admiralty House, (f) Flat 3 in Admiralty House and (g) Government House in Pimlico. [152019]
Chris Grayling: To ask the Prime Minister (1) who lives in the flat above Number 10 Downing Street; [152249]
(2) which Ministers have been allocated official Ministerial accommodation. [152250]
The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Members to the press briefing given by my spokesman on 18 July 2007. A transcript of this is available on the No. 10 website (http://pm.gov.uk/output/Page12547.asp) and a copy has been placed in the Library of the House.
Written Questions
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Prime Minister if he will make it his policy when answering written questions by reference to a comment made by his official spokesman in a press briefing to include the full relevant extract in the Official Report rather than a direct reference to the appropriate URL to the press conference in question. [152381]
The Prime Minister: Where my answer refers to a specific document on the website, copies are made available to the hon. Member asking the question and are also placed in the Libraries of the House.
Work and Pensions
Child Support Agency: Debt Collection
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much Child Support Agency arrears have been contracted out for private sector collection in each month from January 2005 to June 2007; and if he will make a statement. [146147]
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 20 July 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 much Child Support Agency arrears have been contracted out for private sector collection in each month from January 2005 to June 2007; and if he will make a statement.
The Child Support Agency conducted a pilot between August 2005 and December 2005 with two private debt collection agencies to assess the feasibility of involving the private sector in recovering child support maintenance debt. The Agency referred cases with a debt value of £30 million to the debt collection agencies involved in the pilot.
Following the pilot and a procurement exercise, the Agency signed contracts with two debt collection agencies on 7 July 2006. The amount of child support maintenance debt exported to the debt collection agencies each month is included in the attached table.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
| Amount of child support maintenance debt referred to debt collection agencies | |
| Value (£) | |
Children: Maintenance
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of (a) all parents with care and (b) all lone parents with care were receiving child support payments from the non resident parent in the latest period for which information is available. [146171]
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 20 July 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 proportion of (a) all parents with care and (b) all lone parents with care were receiving child support payments from the non-resident parent in the latest period for which information is available.
The information requested in part (a) can be obtained from table 7.2 of the March 2007 Child Support Agency Quarterly Summary Statistics. A copy of this is available in the House of Commons Library, it is also available on the Internet via the following link: www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/child_support/csa_quarterly_mar07.asp.
Information on lone parents receiving child support cannot be provided, as the Agency does not hold information on whether a parent with care has a current partner.
The information is case based, and a parent with care may be involved in more than one case.
I hope you find this helpful.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will publish his Department’s research on the effects of (a) curfews and (b) naming and shaming on child maintenance compliance; and if he will make a statement. [146437]
Mr. Plaskitt: In the case of curfews, it is intended that this form of enforcement is used where other lesser and direct attempts to recover the unpaid maintenance have been tried but some or all of the amount remains outstanding.
While research indicates that curfews do not tend to feature internationally, all major comparator countries that have a similar child maintenance system to the UK operate a range of enforcement options. Curfews will serve as an effective alternative to committal as such orders will create a strong incentive for the non-resident parent to pay, while not impeding his or her ability to do so by causing him or her to lose his job.
In the case of ‘naming and shaming’ (the publication of the names of non-resident parents who have been successfully prosecuted for information offences on the CSA website) the Department is aware that a similar approach is used in some other child maintenance systems internationally.
Both these policies need to be seen as part of the broader programme to build a stronger culture of compliance amongst non-resident parents. The intention is to promote the message that not paying for your children is unacceptable and brings consequences with it.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether it is his policy that under the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, a person whose maintenance assessment is based on last year’s HM Revenue and Customs income data will have an entitlement to recovery of a child maintenance overpayment if in-year income falls by up to but not in excess of 25 per cent.; and if he will make a statement. [146690]
Mr. Plaskitt: There are no plans for the Commission to have an entitlement to recover a child maintenance overpayment if in-year income falls up to but not in excess of 25 per cent.
Current plans are to amend a calculation based on HMRC latest tax year gross income if the current income differs by 25 per cent. or more. At the annual review, the latest available HMRC gross income will be used to set a new fixed term award.
Children: Poverty
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make it his policy to introduce (a) a measure of severe poverty and (b) a severe child poverty action plan; and if he will make a statement. [148295]
Mrs. McGuire: The chapter on child poverty in last year's Opportunity for All strategy report outlined the breadth of work underway across Government to ensure that our targets to halve and ultimately eradicate child poverty are met. These commitments reflect our wider ambition to ensure that every child has the best start in life and has an equal opportunity to fulfil their potential. We are making good progress; there were 600,000 fewer children in poverty in the UK (as measured by relative low income) in 2005-06 than there were in 1998-99.
The Government's long-term measure for child poverty already includes three indicators developed following extensive consultation initiated by the DWP: absolute low income, relative low income, and material deprivation combined with relative low income. This long-term measure is also underpinned by the poverty and social exclusion indicators within Opportunity for All.
There are a number of ways that depth of poverty can be measured. Our Opportunity for All indicators includes a range of income thresholds. In addition, we have a lower income threshold implied by the absolute low income tier within our long-term measure. These indicators enable us to analyse different depths of poverty and respond accordingly.
Departments: Consultants
Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much the Department spent on (a) management consultants and (b) other external consultants and advisers in each year since 2000; and which of these consultants undertook work for the Department with a total contractual value in excess of £10 million over that period. [146327]
Mrs. McGuire: DWP was formed in June 2001. The following table provides spend on external consultants in each year, broken down between management and IT consultancy and includes spend on legal consultancy for 2006-07. Totals prior to 2006-07 could be obtained only by incurring disproportionate costs.
| £ million( 1) | ||||||
| Description | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 |
| (1) Costs inclusive of VAT | ||||||
For the second part of this question management information records are only available since April 2004. Contracts for consultancy related services with a total value of over £10 million awarded since this date are in the following table.
| £ million | |
| Supplier | Contract value |
Departments: Fringe Benefits
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many staff in his Department receive assistance from employee assistance programmes; and which firms provide the programmes. [151077]
Mrs. McGuire: All 120,487 staff employed by the Department for Work and Pensions, at all levels have access to the Department's employee assistance programme. This is provided by Right Corecare, a Manpower company.
In the year ending 30 June 2007, 5,402 members of staff contacted the counselling, advice and information helplines.
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