Asked by: Lord Harrington of Watford (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have been found guilty of wrongdoing by the Child Support Agency in the last 10 years; and how many and what proportion of such people were (a) fined and (b) given some other form of punishment.
Answered by Steve Webb
Information on both civil and criminal enforcement actions undertaken by the Child Support Agency (CSA) is only available from April 2007. This can be found on page 44 of the latest CSA Quarterly Summary of Statistics, available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/404296/csa-qtr-summ-stats-dec-2014.pdf
This includes committal information on a variety of enforcement actions, along with information on the number of prosecutions that have been undertaken. However, any fines that have been imposed as a result of these prosecutions are decided by the courts. This information is not routinely recorded for management information purposes and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.