The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 11 June 2007:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make a statement on the processing of clerical Child Support Agency cases. [138730]
In September 2006 the Agency transferred all of its clerical cases to the CSA Bolton site managed by Vertex. Cases are processed clerically when, due to technical issues, they cannot be progressed on our computer system. CSA Bolton is currently processing over 28,000 Agency cases, and has delivered more than £14m in maintenance payments since its launch in September 2006.
Moving the clerical caseload to one site released a large number of Agency people to work on other important work outlined in the Operational Improvement Plan, including reducing the number of uncleared applications and strengthening enforcement. Over 400 Agency people have already been redeployed as a result of the contracting out of clerical casework.
This is the first time any of the Department’s agencies have contracted out core work on this scale and as with any significant change, some areas have not progressed as smoothly as we wanted. We have identified those areas where lessons can be learned for the future and are working hard to improve client service.
I hope you find this answer helpful.