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17 Oct 2007 : Column 1093Wcontinued
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many (a) accidents and (b) traffic offences occurred involving hire cars in Peterborough constituency in each of the last five years. [158962]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The information requested is not available.
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether a financing agreement is in place for the Crossrail project. [158495]
Jim Fitzpatrick [holding answer 16 October 2007]: I refer the right hon. Member to the White Paper for the 2007 pre-Budget report and Comprehensive Spending Review presented to Parliament by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 9 October 2007.
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if she will place a copy in the Library of the financial agreement on Crossrail. [158492]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Subject to commercial confidentiality, the Secretary of State expects to place relevant agreements in the Library in due course.
Dan Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what contingency preparations her Department made for the possibility of a general election in autumn 2007; and what the costs were of those preparations. [156993]
Jim Fitzpatrick: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend, the Minister for the Cabinet Office and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Edward Miliband) on 15 October 2007, Official Report, columns 822-23W.
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many accidents there have been involving (a) motorcyclists, (b) bicycles and (c) only motorcyclists and bicyclists in each year since 1997. [158672]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The number of reported personal injury road accidents involving at least (a) one motorcyclist, (b) one pedal cyclist and (c) no other vehicles or pedestrians but at least one motorcyclist and at least one pedal cyclist, in each year since 1997 is shown in the tablenote that (c) is included in both (a) and (b).
Number of accidents involving at least one: | |||
Motorcycle | Pedal cycle | Motorcycle and pedal cycle only | |
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many of the extra rail carriages announced by her Department in the five-year plan published on 24 July have been introduced; and on which lines. [156923]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The extra rail carriages are to be introduced in stages between 2009 and 2014.
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many road traffic accidents in each of the last five years involved children; and if she will make a statement. [159262]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The number of reported personal injury road accidents involving at least one child casualty (aged 0 to 15) for each of the last five years is:
Number | |
In 2000, the Government set a PSA target to achieve a 50 per cent. reduction in the number of children aged 0 to 15 killed or seriously injured by 2010, compared with the average for 1994-98. 3,294 children were killed or seriously injured in Great Britain in 2006, which is 52 per cent. below the 1994-98 average of 6,860. In February 2007 we issued a new child road safety strategy, which sets out further measures to improve child road safety.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many liability orders the Child Support Agency has applied for in each month since January 2003; how many of these were inaccurate in any particular; and how many were (a) withdrawn and (b) dismissed. [146178]
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 17 October 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 has applied for in each month since January 2003; how many of these were inaccurate in any particular; and how many were (a) withdrawn and (b) dismissed. (146178)
Such information as is available is set out in the attached table. The Agency holds information on; the number of liability orders it has applied for, the numbers subsequently granted as well as information on the numbers of applications withdrawn by the Agency pre and post hearing and the numbers of cases dismissed by the Courts. This information is recorded and validated on a yearly basis only. The Agency currently does not hold management information on the accuracy of individual elements of child maintenance cases such as the liability order process.
Information on a range of enforcement actions is routinely published in the Quarterly Summary of Statistics (QSS). A copy of this is available in the House of Commons Library and is also available on the Internet via the following link:
The Agency seeks liability orders in cases where the non-resident parent is failing to meet their responsibilities to maintain their children. In many cases, as the non-resident parent may not have co-operated fully in the assessment and calculation of their maintenance liability, the Agency will proceed on the basis of the information available. As the Agency will continue to correspond with the non-resident parent
throughout the time taken for a liability order to be granted, the non-resident parent can at any time supply information which may lead to a review of the maintenance assessment, or indeed make payments to comply with the maintenance liability. In addition, in some cases the parent with care can request that any maintenance owed directly to them not be recovered, the Agency will then consider withdrawing the liability order application prior to the court hearing.
Once a liability order is being actively considered by the Court, the non-resident parent can make representations for the Court to dismiss the liability order. The Courts currently dismiss less than one per cent of applications. The Agency believes that this is a good indication of the robustness of the checking regime currently in place. Finally, once a liability order has been awarded, the non-resident parent can again bring forward additional information, or indeed settle their arrears and the Agency may again consider whether it is appropriate to proceed with the application.
It should therefore be noted that there are many reasons that the Agency may withdraw a liability order application, however the Agency currently does not record individual reasons an application may be withdrawn. The most relevant measure of the accuracy of the Agencys process is therefore the low numbers of cases dismissed by the Courts, following representations from the non-resident parent.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Applied for | Withdrawn pre-hearing | Dismissed | Granted | Withdrawn post-hearing | |
Notes: 1. A liability order is a document obtained from the court showing that they legally recognise the debt. This is the same in both England and Wales, and Scotland and is required before the Agency can use litigation powers (Diligence in Scotland). 2. The figures marked with an asterix* are sourced from the Agencys Quarterly Summary of Statistics. All other figures have been clerically collated and are actual figures, not subject to rounding. 3. Figures sourced from the Agencys Quarterly Summary Statistics are rounded to the nearest five. 4. Robust information on the numbers of liability order withdrawn post-hearing is unavailable prior to April 2004. 5. Due to differences in the Scottish legal system, cases classified by the Agency as withdrawn pre-hearing are classified by the courts as dismissed. 6. It should be noted that for any period, the number of liability orders applied for will not directly relate to the number of applications granted as the process can take many weeks to complete. Liability orders applied for in one period may not be granted until the following period. |
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total value is of the contracts the Child Support Agency (CSA) has with external debt collectors; how much has been paid to date under such contracts; with which debt collectors the CSA has contracts; how many cases they are handling; what the average debt outstanding on transfer to the external debt collectors is; how many cases they have successfully recovered outstanding debt from (a) in full and (b) in part; and what average sum has been recovered. [155937]
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 17 October 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 the total value is of the contracts the Child Support Agency (CSA) has with external debt collectors; how much has been paid to date under such contracts; with which debt collectors the CSA has contracts; how many cases they are handling; what the average debt outstanding on transfer to the external debt collectors is; how many cases they have successfully recovered outstanding debt from (a) in full and (b) in part; and what average sum has been recovered. [155937]
The Agency has a current contract with two debt collection agencies, Eversheds LLP and iQor. The contract with both of these debt collection agencies has been let on a commission basis and the final value of the contract will be dependent on the amount of debt collected by them. Up to 31 August 2007, the Agency has paid over £360,000 to the debt collection agencies under this contract.
As at 31 August 2007, the Agency has referred over 59,000 cases to the debt collection agencies with an average debt value of £5,250. Of these, the agencies have collected debt in over 12,000 cases, from which 2,003 non-resident parents have paid their child support maintenance debt in full, with the average collection being £444.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the likely impact of proposed reductions in staffing of the Child Support Agency (CSA) on the effectiveness of the CSA and its successor the Child Maintenance and Support Commission. [155614]
Mr. Plaskitt: The Agency is committed to meeting both the departmentally agreed headcount target of 9,547 by March 2008 and the Secretary of State performance targets for the coming year. Computer system improvements as part of the Agencys Operational Improvement Plan will ensure client service in both CSA, and later C-MEC, will not be affected by this reduction in headcount.
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent assessment has been made of the effectiveness of the Belfast unit of the Child Support Agency over the last (a) six months and (b) year in handling claims involving children from Northamptonshire. [154969]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 10 September 2007]: 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 17 October 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.
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