§ Mr. BayleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security for what reasons the Child Support Agency's departures scheme makes no allowance for the cost of maintaining step-children taken on after April 1993; and if he will make a statement on who is expected to pay the cost of maintaining such stepchildren where the absent natural parent of those stepchildren is(a) dead, (b) unemployed and (c) living overseas. [23329]
§ Mr. Andrew MitchellParents taking responsibility for stepchildren after April 1993 have done so in the full knowledge that the standard child support maintenance
718Wthe funding formula will depend on further discussions with local authority associations. Officials in the Department for the Environment and the Department of Health will be meeting the local authorities association to discuss the issue of the threshold.