Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the progress of the Child Support Agency in restarting committal proceedings since the end of the moratorium.
Answered by Steve Webb
Following the initial review of its commitment to prison processes the Child Support Agency has continued to develop and evolve its processes and procedures, particularly in relation to the non-resident parent's ability to make payment.
As a result of increased focus on gaining payment compliance prior to considering commitment proceedings, the volume of commitment applications made remains lower than during the period preceding the moratorium.
The Agency is however continuing to make both new commitment applications and applications where the parent has defaulted on the terms of a commitment sentence where this seems the enforcement measure most likely to secure payment compliance.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in how many cases the Child Support Agency has started committal proceedings in each of the last five years.
Answered by Steve Webb
Pursuant to my Written Answer on Monday 20 January 2014, Official Report, columns 42 - 43W, information on the number of cases in which the Child Support Agency has started committal proceedings is only readily available from 2010. The table below shows the number of cases where committal proceedings were started for each of the last three complete financial years and the current year to date:
Financial Year | Committal Proceedings Started |
April 2010 – March 2011 | 3270 |
April 2011 – March 2012 | 3560 |
April 2012 – March 2013 | 300 |
April 2013 – December 2013 | 10 |
Notes:
1) Following a Court Of Appeal decision in October 2012, a review of the Commitment to Prison process was carried out to ensure it complied with the terms of the judgement given in that case. Whilst doing so, applications for Commitment to Prison were not brought before the court. Procedures resumed from March 2013.
2) Data sourced from the Tallyman Informer system.
3) Data rounded to the nearest 10.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent meetings he has had with representatives of the deaf community.
Answered by Mike Penning
I met representatives from the Deaf Community (Sir Malcolm Bruce MP, David Buxton British Deaf Association, Jim Edwards Signature and Susan Daniels National Deaf Children's Society) on 23 October 2013. As part of the continuing commitment from that meeting to consider Government services for deaf people, officials have recently met and have remained in contact with representatives of the deaf community, including BDA and Action on Hearing Loss. Action on Hearing Loss is a member of the Disability Charities Consortium who I met on 26 February 2014.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which organisations for deaf people his Department consulted before the Access to Work guidance on support workers was amended.
Answered by Mike Penning
There have been no recent amendments to Access to Work guidance on support workers.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how the maximum grants for funding support workers under the Access to Work scheme were determined.
Answered by Mike Penning
There is no maximum grant level set for the funding of support workers under the Access to Work programme. Our aim is to use the programme budget to assist the maximum possible number of disabled workers across all industry sectors.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the advantages to deaf people of funding a team of interpreters through the Access to Work scheme rather than being assigned a single interpreter by their employer.
Answered by Mike Penning
We have not made any assessment of the advantages to deaf people of funding a team of interpreters through the Access to Work scheme. We appreciate that each situation is unique and may require a bespoke solution.