[holding answer 9 December 2008]: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have therefore asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to 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 Child Maintenance Commissioner.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the two major projects on child maintenance debt referred to by the Comptroller and Auditor General in July 2008 have now been completed; what their main findings were; and if he will place in the Library copies of each project. [241560]
In response to the annual audit of its client funds accounts the Child Support Agency commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers to lead two reviews of how the Agency reported child maintenance debt in its Annual Report and Accounts. The first review concerned the accuracy of the reported debt balance and the associated receipts and payments. The second review concerned the collectability of the child maintenance debt balance as reported in the Agency's Annual Report and Accounts.
The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, which is now responsible for the Child Support Agency has yet to receive the final reports. The Commission expects to be in a position to make the outcome of these reports available in the first quarter of the New Year.
I hope you find this answer helpful.