Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 19 October 2016 to Question 48694, what steps his Department is taking to increase the range of statistics available for assessing the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of the Child Maintenance Service.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) publication strategy, which details the approach being taken by DWP statisticians to improve CMS statistics, can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/488877/cms-2012-scheme-statistics-publication-strategy.pdf

We intend to update this publication strategy shortly with details on new measures and proposed timescales for publishing them.

We will continue to review and update this strategy document and when data becomes available and fully quality assured. They will be released as part of a managed process, which will be pre-announced in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.