To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was paid in bonus payments to staff at the Child Support Agency in each year since 2001. (185073)

The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Stephen Geraghty:

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, how much was paid in bonus payments to staff at the Child Support Agency in each year since 2001. [185073]

The Child Support Agency is part of the Department for Work and Pensions and operates Departmental schemes. Over the period from 2001 to 2007, three separate schemes for payment of bonuses have operated within the Child Support Agency. Each of the three schemes have different criteria on how a bonus can be earned and the percentage of the pay budget that can be applied to it.

The figures provided in the attached table highlight the amounts paid as special, Makinson and individual performance bonuses.

Both the special bonus scheme and the individual performance bonuses were in operation for the entire period within all parts of the Department. The guidelines, policy funding and framework for these schemes are set by the Department.

The Makinson bonus scheme was undertaken as part of a Treasury initiative to enhance performance in the public sector by linking performance to reward. This scheme only ran for 2002-03 and 2003-04 and was trialled in three parts of the Department, one of which was the Child Support Agency. Incentive payments made under this scheme were funded directly by the Treasury.

I hope you find this answer helpful.

The table below shows the sums paid to Agency employees as special bonuses, Makinson bonuses and individual performance bonuses between 2001-02 and 2006-07.