Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make the Child Maintenance Options Service 0800 telephone number free to all callers, including mobile telephone users.

Calls to the Child Maintenance Options 0800 telephone number are free from BT land lines but customers may have to pay if they use another telephone company or a mobile, or if they are calling from abroad. We are currently finalising arrangements with the six major mobile network providers to make the numbers free to call from their networks.

In the meantime, callers contacting the Child Maintenance Options service from a mobile telephone are informed by their network provider that they will be charged. Callers using mobile telephones can request the Options service to call them back, or alternatively use the online ‘live chat' facility or email service, available via the Child Maintenance Options website at www.cmoptions.org.