HL Deb 01 April 1996 vol 571 cc12-3WA
Earl Russell

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is their response to the hope expressed by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration in paragraph 10 of his third report (Investigation of Complaints against the Child Support Agency) that "savings will not be required from an organisation which has shown by its past performance how inefficient it can be, if the result is greater inefficiency".

The Minister of State, Department of Social Security (Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish)

Neither the Child Support Agency nor any other business unit will be required to make savings which lower efficiency.

Earl Russell

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the third report of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, "Investigation of Complaints against the Child Support Agency", whether it is their view that the cases investigated, especially in section two of the report, might have been more effectively handled by a contested hearing before a court than they could have been by casual exchanges of correspondence.

Lord Mackay of Ardbrecknish

No. The inability of the courts to provide adequate or consistent levels of child maintenance is well documented. There is nothing in the Parliamentary Commissioner's recent report to suggest that the courts would have been able to cope with the flows of work and the disruptions—often deliberate—faced by the Child Support Agency.