§ Mr. BrowneTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when the Child Support Agency's 1998–99 annual report and accounts will be published. [93787]
§ Mr. McFallThe Northern Ireland Child Support Agency published its 1998–99 Annual Report and Accounts on Friday 23 July. I have arranged for copies to be placed in the Library.
The Agency has met five of the six Ministerial targets and all Milestone targets. An outturn of £14.7 million was achieved for the Maintenance Collected target of £15.8 million and, although this target was not achieved, the maintenance collected is an increase of 16 per cent. on 1997–98 and a 51 per cent. increase on 1996–97.
The Agency has placed a strong emphasis on improving the quality of service to customers and it is gratifying to see that an outturn of 71 per cent. has been achieved for the processing of maintenance assessments against a 65 per cent. target Improvements in quality are also evident with an outturn of 85 per cent. for the accuracy of assessment target of 75 per cent. The Report included details of the contribution which the Northern Ireland Agency makes to the overall performance of the Great Britain Agency through its partnership contract to deliver services to the people of Eastern England.
The Agency recognises that customers have a right to good service provided by skilled staff and the foundations for continuing improvements are in place. Major changes in service delivery, including additional hours of contact with customers and more use of the telephone, will improve customer contact and the service provided. However, the Agency has a long way to go in improving the quality of its work, particularly in the accuracy of maintenance assessments which it makes.
In the longer term, the Government's recently published proposals for a thorough reform of the child support system represent the best opportunity to radically improve services to customers especially, and most importantly, by putting children first.