here - United Kingdom Parliament

859W
Written Answers
1 DECEMBER 2010
Written Answers
860W
Jessica Lee: To ask the Secretary of State for Work
and Pensions in how many assessed cases currently
being dealt with by the Child Support Agency child
maintenance liability is abated to take account of shared
care arrangements; and what proportion of these cases
are abated by (a) one seventh, (b) two sevenths, (c)
three sevenths and (d) one half. [26442]
Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement
Commission is responsible for the child maintenance
system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner
to write to my hon. Friend with the information requested
and I have seen the response.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the
Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive
reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner as the Child
Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance
and Enforcement Commission.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in
how many assessed cases currently being dealt with by the Child
Support Agency child maintenance liability is abated to take
account of shared care arrangements; and what proportion of
these cases are abated by (a) one seventh (b) two sevenths (c) three
sevenths and (d) one half. [26442]
Information is not available on the value that maintenance
assessments have been abated by when taking into account shared
care arrangements.
Information is available on the number of nights each qualifying
child on cases administered on the CSCS computer system spends
with the parent with care. Information is also available on the
number of current scheme cases administered on the CS2 computer
system with a shared care arrangement in place. However, no
robust information is available for old scheme cases administered
on the CS2 computer system or for cases administered off system.
A shared care arrangement is defined for current scheme cases
as those cases where the qualifying child or children spends at
least 52 nights per year with the non-resident parent. As at
September 2010 there were 145,500 such cases, which is 22% of
the assessed caseload.
The table shows the number of cases administered on the
CSCS computer system with a shared care arrangement in place.
They are shown split by the number of nights spent with the
parent with care for the qualifying child that spends the least
nights with that parent.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Table 1: CSCS cases with a shared care arrangement: September 2010
Nights spent with parent with care
per week
Number of assessed cases
2 100
3 1,200
4 6,400
5 14,600
Notes:
1. Figures rounded to nearest 100.
2. A case where the child spends one night per week with the parent
with care is recorded on the CSCS computer system as 0 nights.
Likewise, cases where the child spends six nights per week with the
parent with care are recorded on the CSCS computer system as seven
nights. These categories can therefore not be separated and are
therefore not shown.
3. Management information on cases administered on the CSCS
computer system records the number of nights each individual child
spends with the parent with care. It is possible that the number of
nights is different for children within the same case. Therefore, in the
attached response, the child which spends the least number of nights
with the parent with care has been used in the table.
Cold Weather Payments
Rehman Chishti: To ask the Secretary of State for
Work and Pensions whether he made an estimate of the
number of people with cancer who received the cold
weather payment in (a) 2007, (b) 2008 and (c) 2009.
[27866]
Steve Webb: The information requested is not available.
Cold weather payments are paid automatically to
people receiving pension credit and to those receiving
certain income related benefits who are disabled, have a
disabled child or a child under age five.
Departmental Contracts
Andrew Bingham: To ask the Secretary of State for
Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of
the effectiveness of quality management statements in
assisting with contract decisions by his Department;
and what assessment he has made of the effects on the
prospects for small businesses winning of contracts of
such statements. [19014]
Chris Grayling: DWP, as part of its selection criteria,
will assess a bidder’s technical or professional ability,
including quality management. As part of the tender
evaluation process, procurement staff must include, within
the published evaluation criteria, details of any weighting
system used and how the tender will be scored with
reference to quality management.
Bidders are required to describe what quality
management measures they operate relevant to the bid
specification. Where specific quality standards are required
to meet technical contract requirements, bidders are
permitted to provide evidence of equivalent or comparable
processes or systems.
Evaluation criteria will clearly state the scoring attached
to quality management and the minimum acceptable
standard required to deliver the contract. Provided a
bidder can demonstrate their capability to deliver a
contract, there are no barriers that impact on the likely
success of small businesses winning contracts.
Commercial activities in DWP are determined by EU
procurement rules. One of the primary objectives of the
European Union is the prevention of discrimination
and restriction on the movement of goods or services.
Any specification, even those not subject to the EU
rules, must ensure that they comply with this objective.
A member state or contracting authority, such as DWP,
cannot adopt measures that are, even potentially, restrictive.
Sustainable procurement considerations ensure that
opportunities for small businesses to bid for DWP
contracts are maximised. Use of electronic procurement,
division of requirements into local/regional lots and
supplier briefings all help to improve access.
Departmental Grants
Anas Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work
and Pensions (1) what grants have been awarded by his
Department in 2010-11 to date; what grants he plans to
award in each of the next two years; what the monetary
value is of each such grant fund; and to which
organisations such grants have been made; [27862]