Downing Street Says » Child Support Agency

Asked what the Prime Minister had meant when he said at PMQs today that the Child Support Agency (CSA) was not properly suited to its task, the PMOS replied that as people knew, there was a new Chief Executive of the CSA who had launched a review into the operation structure and performance of the CSA. Therefore, all the Prime Minister was doing was spelling out some of the issues that the review had to address. The review would report either at the end of this year, or next.

Put that the Prime Minister seemed to go further than that, and had come to a conclusion, the PMOS said that what the Prime Minister was spelling out were questions about the functions of the CSA, and whether it was possible for one organisation to fulfil all those tasks. Those were questions that the review would deal with.

Asked if the CSA was not able to carry out its functions, what would be its replacement, or what would be taken away from the CSA, the PMOS said that the review should be able to do its work first, and then we would consider its implications. It was important that given the history of the CSA, that a fundamental review was carried out, and that was under way. People should wait to see what the conclusions were, and then draw lessons from it.

Put to the PMOS that the Prime Minister had "clearly already arrived at a judgment that the CSA was finished" so why could we not say what was happening, the PMOS replied that if someone was asked to do a fundamental review of an organisation, it was a good idea to wait for their review to be finished.

Put that the Prime Minister should not have said what he said at PMQs, as there were "millions and millions of people whose lives were screwed up every day by the CSA… and they needed to know if the Prime Minister was serious", the PMOS said that we knew there were real problems with the CSA. The Prime Minister was acknowledging in the Commons today that there were real problems that had been around for a sustained period of time. We also knew that there had been improvements in performance in the CSA, and that should be noted. Equally, what the Prime Minister was not pretending was that there were not fundamental questions that had to be addressed. The PMOS said that the agency did collect more than £600 million for children last year, and this year, we had seen signs of improvement in enforcement action, and the amount of money collected from baliffs alone had doubled from £1.5 million to £2.9 million. However, what the Prime Minister was acknowledging was that there were serious questions that had to be addressed.

Put to the PMOS that the Prime Minister had said in 1998 that there were serious issues with the CSA that had to be resolved, and could it be clarified that there might therefore be a break-up of functions, the PMOS said that whenever there was a fundamental review, it was wrong to jump to conclusions ahead of that review. Therefore, what the Prime Minister was quite properly indicating was the fundamental question that the review had to address. At the same time, it was right and proper that we gave due time for that review to reach proper conclusions.

Asked again if there would be a break up of functions, as that was what the Prime Minister was suggesting, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister was saying that there was a genuine question over whether one agency could fulfil all these functions in the light of experience. Equally, we had to put in the balance that the agency had done a lot to try and prove its worth. The Chief Executive of the CSA was carrying out a review, and people should wait for him to finish the review.

Put that that as part of the review, it would be fair to assume that the break up of functions had to be one of the issues that the Chief Executive would look at, the PMOS replied that as he had said at the start, any fundamental review had to look at the structure, performance and effectiveness.

Asked did the Prime Minister go too far this morning, the PMOS asked whether the journalist seriously expect him to answer "yes" to that question?! No, the Prime Minister did not go too far, because as he had said, whenever the Government took office, the CSA was costing more money to run than it was raising. That no longer was the case. There had been improvements in performance during the past year, but serious questions did remain. What the Prime Minister was indicating at PMQs was the fundamental nature of those questions, and the review was the right place to answer those questions. What the Prime Minister was also trying to indicate was that nobody was trying to brush the problems associated with the CSA under the carpet, or pretend that there was an easy, quick-fix solution, because there was not one.

Asked if the Prime Minister had spoken to the Chief Executive today, the PMOS said not that he was aware of.

Asked if it would be accurate to say that the status quo no longer stood, the PMOS replied it would be accurate to say that the Prime Minister recognised that there were very fundamental and serious problems that needed to be addressed.

Asked if it was good enough to say that no-one should brush the problems under the carpet when a year ago, Alan Johnson told the Select Committee that the department was considering the "nuclear" options and yet, a decision still had not been made a year on, the PMOS said that to pretend there was an easy answer would be to brush things under the carpet. There was not, given the nature of what the CSA was trying to do. We should not kid ourselves that there was an easy answer, as there was not. That was why there was a fundamental review, and also why the Prime Minister quite openly had said that the review had to consider fundamental questions.

Asked if there were any parameters beyond which the review could not go, or beyond consideration, the PMOS replied that there were two steps. There was the review, and then Ministers’ considerations of the review, which they would consider with an open mind.

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» Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Child Support Agency

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