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Dept of Social Security;Child Support Agency

Answer

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many complaints he has received from people using the Child Support Agency relating to breaches of confidentiality in each of the last five years. [65] Mr. Mitchell: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member. Letter from Miss Ann Chant to Mrs. Gwyneth Dunwoody, dated 30 October 1996: I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about breaches of confidentiality relating to the Child Support Agency. It is not possible to answer your Question in precisely the form that you have requested, as statistics on the number of complaints are not recorded by category. However, any apparent breach of confidentiality by Agency staff (whether it emerges via a complaint or our internal checks) is treated very seriously and thoroughly investigated. All staff are made aware of the importance of this aspect of the Agency's work. Since its launch in 1993, the Agency has handled over 1.7 million cases: the total number of confidentiality breaches resulting in disciplinary action is 47. The table below shows a yearly breakdown of this figure. The vast majority of cases were the result of human error, e.g. wrongly directing mail. In one case confidentiality was breached knowingly: this led to the dismissal of the person involved. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Year Number of confidentiality breaches 1993-94 0 1994-95 4 1995-96 28 1996 to date 15 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. I hope this is helpful.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

65; 284 c248-9W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Complaints Codes of practice Child Support Agency Privacy

Contains statistics

Yes