HC Deb 10 June 2003 vol 406 cc788-9W
Mr. David

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether there is equality of treatment between men and women with regard to the way tax credits are taken into account when CSA assessments are made. [113718]

Malcolm Wicks

Yes.

Mr. Llwyd

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many complaints about the standard of service offered by the agency were handled by the Child Support Agency over the past three years; and what the average length of time taken to deal with each complaint was. [115751]

Malcolm Wicks

The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Mr. Doug Smith. He will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Doug Smith to Mr. Elfyn Llwyd, dated 10 June 2003: The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in replying to your recent parliamentary question about the Child Support Agency promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive. You ask how many complaints about the standard of service offered by the Agency were handled by the Child Support Agency over the past three years; and what was the average length of time taken to deal with each complaint. I am unable to tell you how many of the complaints we receive relate to the standard of service offered by us. I do however have some relevant information relating to overall numbers of written complaints to the Agency. The average live caseload during the 3-year period was around 1,000,000.1 estimate that we received around 71,000 written complaints and within that total, around 15,000 were directed to me as chief executive. The average length of time taken to deal with this latter group of complaints was around 19 working days. The average number of complaints received as a percentage of the live caseload during the period was around 1.6%.

Vernon Coaker

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when he expects assessments made by the CSA under the old system will be assessed according to the new criteria. [117901]

Angus Robertson

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment his Department has made of progress in the implementation of the new child support system; when the full transfer of existing child support cases onto the new system will take place; and if he will make a statement. [117735]

Malcolm Wicks

I refer my hon. Friends to the written answer I gave the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (John Thurso) on 22 May 2003,Official Report, column 919W.