Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people are employed in the Child Maintenance Service; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of increasing staffing capacity on timescales for enforcement action.

The Child Maintenance Service, at the end of December 2022 employed 4,747 people, equivalent to 4,046 FTE. This includes colleagues in GB and Department for Communities in Northern Ireland.

Our resourcing levels are regularly reviewed against forecast intake and performance v actuals to ensure a timely and consistent service. Following our most recent Winter forecasting review our request to increase resources directly into our Enforcement segment was approved. An exercise to recruit around 70 staff is currently underway.