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27 Nov 2007 : Column 326W—continued

Children: Maintenance

Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many absent parents in each constituency in Scotland are being dealt with by the Child Support Agency under the old rules. [162755]

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

Letter from Stephen Geraghty dated 27 November 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 absent parents in each constituency in Scotland are being dealt with by the Child Support Agency under the old rules. [162755]

The Agency does not gather information in the format requested. The information available relates to the number of old rules cases with a non-resident parent living in each constituency in Scotland as at September 2007 and is provided in the attached table. Therefore, non-resident parents with more than one case will be counted for each related case.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

27 Nov 2007 : Column 327W

Parliamentary constituency of non-resident parent for cases dealt with under old rules: September 2007
Constituency	Cases
Aberdeen North	1,300
Aberdeen South	900
Airdrie and Shotts	1,500
Angus	1,400
Argyll and Bute	900
Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock	1,400
Banff and Buchan	1,100
Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk	1,300
Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross	600
Central Ayrshire	1,400
Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill	1,400
Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East	1,000
Dumfries and Galloway	1,100
Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale	800
Dundee East	1,400
Dundee West	1,700
Dunfermline and West Fife	1,400
East Dunbartonshire	300
East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow	900
East Lothian	900
East Renfrewshire	600
Edinburgh East	1,100
Edinburgh North and Leith	1,000
Edinburgh South	600
Edinburgh South West	1,400
Edinburgh West	700
Falkirk	1,800
Glasgow Central	1,200
Glasgow East	1,500
Glasgow North	900
Glasgow North East	2,000
Glasgow North West	1,500
Glasgow South	1,200
Glasgow South West	1,600
Glenrothes	1,700
Gordon	800
Inverclyde	1,100
Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey	1,300
Kilmarnock and Loudoun	1,300
Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath	1,600
Lanark and Hamilton East	1,300
Linlithgow and East Falkirk	1,500
Livingston	1,900
Midlothian	1,100
Moray	1,100
Motherwell and Wishaw	1.400
Na h-Eileanan an lar	200
North Ayrshire and Arran	1,400
North East Fife	700
Ochil and South Perthshire	1,400
Orkney and Shetland	600
Paisley and Renfrewshire North	900
Paisley and Renfrewshire South	1,200
Perth and North Perthshire	1,200
Ross, Skye and Lochaber	600
Rutherglen and Hamilton West	1,300
Stirling	1,000
West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine	500
West Dunbartonshire	1,200
Notes: 1. Includes all cases with either a full maintenance assessment or an interim maintenance assessment Including those with a nil liability. 2. This table relates to cases. Therefore, non-resident parents involved in more than one case are included multiple times. 3. All figures are rounded to the nearest 100. 4. Cases have been allocated to parliamentary constituency through matching the postcode for a residential address against the Office for National Statistics postcode directory. 5. A component of the old scheme numbers is taken from a 5 per cent. sample of cases on the old computer system. The old scheme figures and the overall totals are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation. This sampling variation is greater in proportional terms when the number estimated is small.

Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average processing time was for child support applications in each constituency in Scotland in the latest period for which figures are available. [163463]

27 Nov 2007 : Column 328W

Mr. Plaskitt: The information requested is not available at constituency level.

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether money received from (a) war disablement pensions and (b) the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (i) is included in the calculation of child support payments by the Child Support Agency and (ii) will be included in calculations made by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. [166303]

Mr. Plaskitt: The current treatment of parents receiving these payments differs between the two existing schemes.

Under the first child support scheme introduced in 1993 any element of a war disablement pension awarded in respect of attendance needs is ignored. The remaining part of that award in respect of a parent, and any periodical payment made under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme, will be taken into account, apart from a £10 a week disregard. If the liability of a non-resident parent receiving one of these payments would otherwise be the minimum amount, the liability is reduced to nil.

Under the second child support scheme, introduced from March 2003, a non-resident parent receiving war disablement pension or periodical payments under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme will be liable for a flat-rate maintenance of £5 per week.

The proposed new calculation rules to be operated by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission from 2010 will continue to include a flat-rate but at £7 per week for non-resident parents receiving war disablement pension or periodical payments under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme.

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the Child Maintenance and Enforcements Commission will sign new contracts with debt collection agencies for debt collection or maintain contracts with agencies signed by the Child Support Agency. [166357]

Mr. Plaskitt: When responsibility for child support functions transfers to the Commission, the Commission will be able to use the contracts currently used by the CSA. Future debt collection arrangements will be for the Commission to determine.

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many individuals have received a consolatory payment from the Child Support Agency; [166679]

(2) what the (a) average size and (b) total value has been of consolatory payments made to individuals by the Child Support Agency. [166680]

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.

27 Nov 2007 : Column 329W

Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 27 November 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 individuals have received a consolatory payment from the Child Support Agency. [166679]

and

What the (a) average size and (b) total value has been of consolatory payments made to individuals by the Child Support Agency. [166680]

The Agency does not routinely collect information regarding the number of individuals that receive consolatory payments. The information provided in the table below refers to the total number of consolatory awards made in the most recent complete year. Individuals may receive more than one award in any year.

Child Support Agency consolatory awards
	2006-07
Total number of Consolatory awards made	9,194
Consolatory payments (£ million)	0.666
Average (£)	72.44

Consolatory awards are not usually large amounts but do acknowledge that a client's case has not been handled as well as it might.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

Departmental Pay

Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the value of the Christmas bonus was in each year since 1997. [166830]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Christmas bonus has been £10 in each year since 1997.

Incapacity Benefit

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many incapacity benefit claimants with claims of five years or more duration there were in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) region, (b) local authority area and (c) parliamentary constituency. [162684]

Mrs. McGuire: The available information has been placed in the Library.

Incapacity Benefit: Chelmsford

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in receipt of incapacity benefit in West Chelmsford constituency there were in each of the last five years. [166241]

Mrs. McGuire [holding answer 26 November 2007]: The information is in the following table.

27 Nov 2007 : Column 330W

Number of incapacity benefit/severe disablement allowance claimants in West Chelmsford parliamentary constituency
Quarter ending May	West Chelmsford
2003	2,260
2004	2,360
2005	2,470
2006	2,430
2007	2,430
Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Source: DWP Information Directorate Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study 100 per cent. data.

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