Jacob Rees-Mogg

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) takes the protection of the data it holds very seriously and has measures in place to protect it. These measures vary depending on the service used and the sensitivity of the data provided.

All DVLA’s data release services are subject to a formal assessment before they are made available for use. This ensures that there are adequate policies as well as procedural and technical controls in place to protect the data. Privacy Impact Assessments are also completed to identify and address any privacy risks associated with the service and ensure that personal data is processed in compliance with the law.

An audit carried out earlier this year by the Information Commissioner’s Office confirmed that the DVLA’s procedures offer high assurance that processes are in place to mitigate the risks of non-compliance with the Data Protection Act.

The number of passenger accidents over the years 2011 to 2015 that involved slam-door stock, broken down by injury degree, is set out in the table below:-

There have been no records destroyed, deleted or removed from the Child Maintenance Service since the Child Maintenance (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2018 came into force on 14 December 2018.

The Department routinely publishes information on the 1993 and 2003 Child Maintenance schemes in the CSA Quarterly Summary of Statistics, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-support-agency-quarterly-summary-statistics--2.

The next CSA Quarterly Summary of Statistics is due to be released in May. This will include statistics on the amount of historical arrears written off and the number of cases closed since the Child Maintenance (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2018 came into force.

The Department routinely publishes information on the 1993 and 2003 Child Maintenance schemes in the CSA Quarterly Summary of Statistics, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-support-agency-quarterly-summary-statistics--2.

The next CSA Quarterly Summary of Statistics is due to be released in May. This will include statistics on the amount of historical arrears written off and the number of cases closed since the Child Maintenance (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2018 came into force.

Data is available on the number of arrears only cases registered with the Child Support Agency (CSA). This is available in Table 2 of the Child Support Agency Case Closure Statistics: June 2014 - September 2018 (below).

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-support-agency-case-closures-june-2014-to-september-2018

Statistics on the total number of Child Support Agency arrears only cases that have been transferred to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), and the number of CSA arrears only cases on the CMS caseload are published in Table 8 of the same publication (Child Support Agency Case Closure Statistics).

This publication shows that as of September 2018 there were 171,700 CSA arrears only cases on the Child Maintenance Service Caseload.

Data on the number of cases with arrears accrued within the Child Maintenance Service is available from Child Maintenance Service Administrative Data. This shows that, as of September 2018, there were 6,700 cases where arrears have been accumulated solely within CMS and liability has ended. There are a further 2,700 cases with both CMS and CSA arrears where liability has ended.*

Case closure is part of the government’s 2012 vision for child maintenance reforms designed to encourage parents to consider making collaborative family based arrangements.

Since 2014, cases with the Child Support Agency have been closed in a phased manner as part of the transition to the Child Maintenance Service.

To provide CSA clients with an opportunity to consider their choice of future maintenance arrangement – including whether they could make a family based arrangement – they are signposted to the Child Maintenance Options service as part of the closure process.

Following Parliamentary approval of new regulations in December 2018, the Department is now implementing its Child Maintenance Compliance and Arrears Strategy which includes finally dealing with the remaining arrears only CSA cases. Where there is a prospect that it may be cost effective to do so, we are offering parents a chance to ask the department to attempt to collect the outstanding arrears. Arrears that are not cost effective to attempt to collect and those which parents do not want us to pursue, will be written off.

*Please note that the data supplied on arrears accrued within the Child Maintenance Service are derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.

Data is available on the number of arrears only cases registered with the Child Support Agency (CSA). This is available in Table 2 of the Child Support Agency Case Closure Statistics: June 2014 - September 2018 (below).

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-support-agency-case-closures-june-2014-to-september-2018

Statistics on the total number of Child Support Agency arrears only cases that have been transferred to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), and the number of CSA arrears only cases on the CMS caseload are published in Table 8 of the same publication (Child Support Agency Case Closure Statistics).

This publication shows that as of September 2018 there were 171,700 CSA arrears only cases on the Child Maintenance Service Caseload.

Data on the number of cases with arrears accrued within the Child Maintenance Service is available from Child Maintenance Service Administrative Data. This shows that, as of September 2018, there were 6,700 cases where arrears have been accumulated solely within CMS and liability has ended. There are a further 2,700 cases with both CMS and CSA arrears where liability has ended.*

Case closure is part of the government’s 2012 vision for child maintenance reforms designed to encourage parents to consider making collaborative family based arrangements.

Since 2014, cases with the Child Support Agency have been closed in a phased manner as part of the transition to the Child Maintenance Service.

To provide CSA clients with an opportunity to consider their choice of future maintenance arrangement – including whether they could make a family based arrangement – they are signposted to the Child Maintenance Options service as part of the closure process.

Following Parliamentary approval of new regulations in December 2018, the Department is now implementing its Child Maintenance Compliance and Arrears Strategy which includes finally dealing with the remaining arrears only CSA cases. Where there is a prospect that it may be cost effective to do so, we are offering parents a chance to ask the department to attempt to collect the outstanding arrears. Arrears that are not cost effective to attempt to collect and those which parents do not want us to pursue, will be written off.

*Please note that the data supplied on arrears accrued within the Child Maintenance Service are derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.

Data is available on the number of arrears only cases registered with the Child Support Agency (CSA). This is available in Table 2 of the Child Support Agency Case Closure Statistics: June 2014 - September 2018 (below).

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-support-agency-case-closures-june-2014-to-september-2018

Statistics on the total number of Child Support Agency arrears only cases that have been transferred to the Child Maintenance Service (CMS), and the number of CSA arrears only cases on the CMS caseload are published in Table 8 of the same publication (Child Support Agency Case Closure Statistics).

This publication shows that as of September 2018 there were 171,700 CSA arrears only cases on the Child Maintenance Service Caseload.

Data on the number of cases with arrears accrued within the Child Maintenance Service is available from Child Maintenance Service Administrative Data. This shows that, as of September 2018, there were 6,700 cases where arrears have been accumulated solely within CMS and liability has ended. There are a further 2,700 cases with both CMS and CSA arrears where liability has ended.*

Case closure is part of the government’s 2012 vision for child maintenance reforms designed to encourage parents to consider making collaborative family based arrangements.

Since 2014, cases with the Child Support Agency have been closed in a phased manner as part of the transition to the Child Maintenance Service.

To provide CSA clients with an opportunity to consider their choice of future maintenance arrangement – including whether they could make a family based arrangement – they are signposted to the Child Maintenance Options service as part of the closure process.

Following Parliamentary approval of new regulations in December 2018, the Department is now implementing its Child Maintenance Compliance and Arrears Strategy which includes finally dealing with the remaining arrears only CSA cases. Where there is a prospect that it may be cost effective to do so, we are offering parents a chance to ask the department to attempt to collect the outstanding arrears. Arrears that are not cost effective to attempt to collect and those which parents do not want us to pursue, will be written off.

*Please note that the data supplied on arrears accrued within the Child Maintenance Service are derived from unpublished management information which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. They should therefore be treated with caution.

The information requested is not available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost

The Department for Work and Pensions is undertaking planning for all EU exit scenarios, as is prudent for such a significant issue, including working closely with the Department for Exiting the European Union to ensure consistency of plans across government.

On 13^th March 2017 the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions made a statement:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2017-03-13/HCWS528/

Where the Child Support Agency (CSA) identifies maladministration it is committed to addressing this through training, education, amending procedures and formal action with the individuals concerned.

The CSA is also subject to scrutiny from a variety of external bodies including the Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman, DWP Independent Case Examiner and National Audit Office. These bodies will follow up on their initial reports, to confirm that the maladministration has been put right.

The Child Support Agency may consider a variation to the maintenance calculation on the ground of “lifestyle inconsistent with declared income” where evidence is provided that indicates a parent has a lifestyle which is inconsistent with the amount of income that has been used in the standard calculation.

The table below details the number of decisions made by the Child Support Agency (CSA) which have been overturned by the First Tier Tribunal in the last three years and the latest position for 2014/2015:

Information on CSA decisions overturned by the Upper Tribunal is not collected centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The new child maintenance scheme introduced in 2012 applies a broader definition of income to take account of taxable income derived from assets not included in the main calculation. We believe capturing taxable rather than notional income is far more meaningful for parents as well as administratively achievable. There are currently no plans to review this.

We understand that the policy intentions of the National Health Service (Amended Duties and Powers) Bill (‘the Bill’) are to establish a duty on the Secretary of State to provide NHS services, to make reforms to the NHS in such a manner as to remove its susceptibility to procurement and competition laws and to reduce the level of non-NHS health income that NHS organisations can receive.

This Bill, were it to become law, would reverse a proportion of the changes made under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. The Department considers that a reasonable estimate of the cost of implementing this Bill would be in the order of at least tens of millions of pounds.

The costing does not reflect the opportunity costs, organisational restructuring and associated staff and redundancy costs that may need to be accommodated. Significant costs could also arise from implementation costs, including legal costs. There are also likely to be significant costs associated with the transitional changes required to give effect to the Bill’s provisions. For example, Clause 5 gives the Secretary of State power to direct clinical commissioning groups and the NHS Commissioning Board. Such a power materially changes the character of these organisations, which have been established to exist outside of a traditional NHS ‘hierarchy’ and to minimise the risk of political micro-management.

Competition and procurement legislation

A key policy aim of the Bill – and particularly clauses 6, 9 and 11 is to attempt to remove the susceptibility of the NHS to existing competition and procurement legislation. To achieve this aim the system would have to change significantly.

As well as the above changes, we believe that the Department would need to set aside significant levels of contingency budgets in order to allow for the extra costs associated with legal challenges to NHS procurements.

Direct costs would be incurred from; Part 1, clause 2 (new section 2c), subsections (2) - (7)) and clause 6 (new section 9 subsections (18) - (21) and Part 3 clause 12 of this Bill attributed to the Secretary of State for Health being required to:

- Fulfil an amended role in relation to mergers between NHS Trust / Foundation Trust;

- provide guidance on cooperation and social solidarity;

- seek advice from relevant parties and issue directions;

- adjudicate on any complaints they consider appropriate; and,

- deal with any NHS Contract references to arbitration under Section 3.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 made changes to Monitor’s functions and the Secretary of State’s powers of direction over commissioners. This Bill proposes to make similar changes, albeit opposite to the 2012 Act under Parts 1, 2 and 3 for changes to Monitor’s and the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) functions and to reintroduce Secretary of State’s powers of direction over commissioners.

Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this Bill will incur new costs. To fulfil these new Duties, advice would be required from experts from an organisation similar in scale to what is currently spent on competition in Monitor. This function (other than mergers) could be delegated to Monitor, or within the Department, but some redundancy costs could be expected for those not wishing to transfer, or from winding down the function in Monitor if it returned to the Department. For 2013/14 this cost was £1,588,554[1] which included 30 staff. At least this level of cost would be directly incurred in addition to what is currently spent as a result of Part 3, clause 12; Part 1, clause 2, (new section 2c, subsections (2) - (7) and Part 2 clause 6 (new section 9, subsections (18) - (21).

In particular the functions set out in Part 3, clause 12 are currently undertaken by the CMA. Therefore, a similar function would be required to be established to support the Secretary of State in making decisions, as the CMA is likely to retain its existing staff to work on other market investigations. This is because the CMA has a legal duty to refer a merger for an in-depth investigation where:

(a) a relevant merger situation has been created or arrangements are in progress or in contemplation which, if carried into effect, will result in the creation of a relevant merger situation, and

(b) the creation of that situation has resulted, or may be expected to result, in a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets for goods or services in the UK.

The Secretary of State would potentially issue guidance on the role of competition and choice, and would have a role in the adjudication of complaints in these matters. At the moment, this role is undertaken by Monitor. This would require a resource in the scale of the Competition and Cooperation Panel that undertook this role prior to the Health and Social Care Act 2012, indicative figures for which are set out above.

Clause 7, (new section 43, subsections 1-6) and clause 8 of the Bill would provide the Secretary of State with the power of direction over the level of NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Trust non-health service patient income.

Private patient income cap

We note that the Bill does not define the level of non-health service patient income which NHS trusts could collect, but note that the Shadow Secretary of State said during the Second Reading of the Bill that (Official Report, 21 November 2014, column 574):

“It reduces the private patient income cap back down to single figures”

Reducing the private income cap to 9% would mean that the following NHS organisations experience a shortfall totalling £50 million as of 2013/14:

[1] Monitor’s competition functions were established by the Health and Social Care Act 2012. In the transition year 2012-13 Monitor hosted the Cooperation and Competition Panel at a cost of £1,068,099. The cost for 2013-14 also included hosting the Cooperation and Competition Panel.