Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Andrew Selous (Conservative). It was answered on Monday, 31 October 2005 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Child Support Agency

Question: May I recommend that the Secretary of State takes a plane trip to Australia, where he will find a child support agency that gets more money than our CSA to parents caring for children? The Australian CSA helps to look after the emotional needs of non-resident parents, rather than just extracting money from them, and it is about to help families to stay together in the first place through a network of family relationship centres. Those lessons are valuable. What reassurance can the Secretary of State give us that he will learn from them?

Answer: The first part of the hon. Gentleman's question constituted the best offer that I have had for several days, and I shall certainly take him up on it. I take the second part very seriously, however. We must take every possible step to avoid breakdown. We need, and have discussed, a gateway or ameliorative process to ensure that when relationships do break down, no bureaucratic machinery is involved in dealing with the consequences, but above all to remind people that the CSA was established—by a Conservative Government—because individuals were not prepared to take responsibility for their actions. We are trying to remedy a breakdown in civil society, not just a breakdown of the bureaucratic processes.

Secondary information