HC Deb 22 July 2004 vol 424 cc434-5W
Mr. Bacon

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions who the Finance Director of(a) the Department and (b) the Child Support Agency is; what accountancy qualifications each Director holds; and on how many occasions there has been a qualified opinion on (i) the resource accounts and (ii) other accounts of each in the last five years. [183418]

Mr. Pond

The Finance Director of the DWP is John Codling who is CIPFA qualified. The Finance Director of the Child Support Agency is Jim Edgar who is CIMA qualified.

The DWP and its predecessor Department, DSS, has had its resource accounts qualified in each of the years since published resource accounts were first produced in 1999–2000. Since the DWP was formed in 2001–02 its resource accounts have been qualified in both 2001–02 and 2002–03 due to: significant levels of estimated fraud and error in benefit expenditure recorded in the operating statement; weaknesses in the Department's audit trails relating to contributory and non-contributory benefit customer overpayments debtors and the encashment control creditor. The Department has a programme in place to address these long standing system weaknesses.

The 2003–04 resource accounts will he available later this year.

Prior to 1999–2000 the Department's accounts were produced on a cash basis and the DSS Vote 1 Account was qualified on the basis of fraud and error since 1990–91 along with the National Insurance Fund Account which was the responsibility y of the Department prior to its transfer to the Inland Revenue in 2001–02.

In the past five years, all other accounts within the Department, with the exception of the Child Support client funds account, have been produced free of a qualified audit opinion.

The Child Support Agency administration account has never been qualified. The client funds account has been qualified each year due to largely historic errors in the underlying maintenance assessments resulting in misstatements in receipts and payments, and in the maintenance balances outstanding

The 2003ߝ04 CSA client fund account will be available later this year.