Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, it might be helpful, if noble Lords will allow, if I spend a little time setting the scene for this group and the next two groups of amendments. As noble Lords have mentioned, they are closely interrelated. Let me say at the outset that one thing on which I am sure we can all agree is that the really vulnerable people in all this are the children. They are the people we most want to protect. I agree with the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, and others who have made similar comments. It is our strong view that the best outcome for the children of separating parents is generally obtained when both parties can reach a voluntary agreement. Evidence from the Relationship Separation and Child Support Study in 2008 showed that more than half of CSA parents with care and nearly three-quarters of non-resident parents felt that they would be likely or very likely to make a family-based arrangement with help from a trained impartial adviser. So the central thrust of what we are trying to do is to establish a new system for reaching voluntary agreements. That system will work by providing parents with more information and support about how to establish an effective maintenance arrangement than they have had before. Previously parents had to choose between the courts, the CSA, trying to work out how to set up a voluntary agreement or having no arrangement in place at all. All too often—in fact for half the children concerned—it has been the last of these. For the first time we will be offering real help to families to consider whether they can collaborate and establish a more effective family-based arrangement without heavy state involvement. We of course understand that reaching a voluntary agreement is not always going to be possible, although we think it could be achieved much more often than it is at present. Where it is simply not possible, there has to be a fallback option, and that will remain the statutory system. The last Government introduced, through the Child Maintenance and Other Payments Act 2008—to which the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, referred—the concept of charging, and we turn to this in more detail in the next group of amendments. I take this opportunity to say that we agree with the last Government that the concept of charging is acceptable, but if people are to be asked to pay they are entitled to ask for a better service. That is why we will radically improve the statutory system with a stronger, more reliable IT system and a strong suite of enforcement measures. The first part of Amendment 113B seeks to place an objective on the Secretary of State through the provisions of the Child Support Act 1991 to maximise the number of effective maintenance arrangements for children who live apart from one or both parents. This is the current statutory objective of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. The commission also has a number of statutory functions, one of which is to provide the statutory service currently delivered by the CSA. When the commission is abolished, its functions will transfer to the Secretary of State exactly as they now stand. Its statutory objective will not, however, transfer to the Secretary of State as the objective was specific to the commission in a way that the functions are not. So the issue that noble Lords are raising is what will happen when the commission is abolished and its functions transfer to the Secretary of State. The Government’s position is unequivocal, and I am glad to have this opportunity to reiterate for the record our commitment to the objective of maximising the number of effective maintenance arrangements for children who live apart from one or both parents. I hope that that satisfies my noble friend’s request for a strong assurance. When the delivery of functions has been given to an arm’s-length body, as is presently the case with the commission, then clearly good governance and clear accountability suggest setting the organisation an objective in statute against which it can be held to account. However, legislation is not necessary in order for the Secretary of State to work towards his own objective. The whole thrust of the Public Bodies Bill, of which the abolition of the commission is one instance, is to increase ministerial accountability. The second part of the amendment seeks to place a duty on the Secretary of State to make and lay a report before Parliament twice a year giving details of progress made in achieving this objective. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is currently considering the measurement and reporting of success, which we agree is vital. In particular, we are developing plans for monitoring the number of effective arrangements across the whole population of separated families, including those who do not use the statutory service. I do not believe we need to impose this requirement by statute. My noble friend Lord Kirkwood asked about the progress of the Government’s response to the Select Committee report. The Government believe that the strategic vision for the child maintenance system should place positive outcomes for families and, in particular, children at its heart. The Government are therefore determined to listen to and review all the inputs made by a range of stakeholders representing families and children as they shape final policy. All the questions raised by the Committee need to be answered fully, and the Government wish to produce an informative response from a strong position. The delay reflects this. My noble friend asked when we will publish the draft regulations. I can confirm that that will be by Christmas. He also asked about progress with the IT system. We are determined not to repeat the problems of the past by introducing a new system when it is not ready. It is important to get a new system right before it goes live. We are not developing a system from scratch. We will use tried and tested commercially available software packages. We have learnt from the experiences of the CSA and aim to provide a system that puts the client first and provides value for money for taxpayers. We are confident that the new system is on track for its 2012 launch. Let me now turn to Amendment 113C. This seeks to ensure biannual reporting on a range of issues relating to parents who are unable to establish effective arrangements and the services that might help them achieve this. Let me emphasise that we are fully committed to evaluating the impact of the reforms. The estimated impacts will be set out in the impact assessments that will accompany the draft regulations on charging and CSA case closure that will be consulted on next year. Evaluation could involve the use of current household surveys or the commissioning of specialist surveys aimed at the child maintenance population alone. However, these are very expensive to run. An annual survey could cost around £1 million. One large determinant of cost is frequency and another is sample size. The more we look for disaggregated results covering particular subgroups, the larger the sample size has to be for these results to be robust. So we will need to consider the trade-offs of frequency and robustness of different sample sizes against the costs. We also need to consider carefully the best formats for reporting progress when the commission’s functions are absorbed within DWP and how best to align with the need to report across the range of the department’s business. For these reasons, it would be unduly inflexible to impose requirements by statute. If the underlying intention behind the amendment is concern about those children who are not covered by an effective arrangement and whose parents need some support to be able to establish an arrangement, then perhaps I can offer further reassurance. Prior to the commission, parents had only three choices: to use the CSA, to use the courts, or to go it alone. The commission introduced the child maintenance options service to provide information, support and signposting to other services. We want to build on this so that parents can reach their own family-based arrangements without having to go it alone. The options services will be replaced by the family support service and the gateway. The result will be an increased level of advice and support for parents building on the experiences learnt from operating the options service and taking on board recommendations from the expert steering group put together to advise on such matters.