To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate his Department has made of the number of individuals subject to debt management plans in each of the last four years. (242286)

[holding answer 10 December 2008]: I have been asked to reply.

Because a debt management plan (DMP) is an informal agreement between a debtor and his creditors, there is no official record of their numbers. There is a multiplicity of both public and private sector providers in this area, but in view of the scarcity of information available, no attempt has been made to estimate numbers.

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service, the biggest provider of DMPs in the third sector, set up 12,500 DMPs in the first six months of this year.