(2) what funding has been allocated (a) by his Department and (b) the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission for operating the Child Maintenance Options service for each year from 2008-09 to 2011-12.
[holding answer 22 January 2009]: The funding the Department has allocated to the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is published in the Commission’s Business Plan. 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 Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Minister promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner. The Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance Enforcement Commission.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what funding has been allocated to the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission in each year between 2008-09 and 2011-12. [250532]; and
What funding has been allocated (a) by his Department and (b) the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission for operating the Child Maintenance Options service for each year from 2008-09 to 2011-12. [250533]
The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission business plan published in July 2008, sets out the agreed funding for the current three year spending review period. The funding estimates set out in the business plan were based on the best estimates, trends and evidence available at the time. The funding requirement was estimated as £625 million for the current year to March 2009 and indicative funding requirement of £1,137 million for the following two years to March 2011. This funding covers both the Commission’s spend on developing new services, creating the future statutory maintenance scheme and the full running costs of the Child Support Agency for the three years to the end of March 2011.
The three year contract to deliver the Child Maintenance Options was published 5 March 2008 as an Official Journal of the European Union contract award notice with a contract value of £23 million.
Future funding for the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission beyond April 2011 is subject to the next spending review.