Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to implement the recommendations accepted in Dr Samantha Callan's report Independent Review of the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) response to Domestic Abuse, published on 17 January 2022.

The scale of violence against women and girls in our country is intolerable and this Government will treat it as the national emergency that it is.

The previous government accepted eight of the ten recommendations in Dr Callan’s review and had made good progress in implementing these including introducing legislation to remove the £20 application fee in February 2024. The CMS domestic training has been reviewed following engagement with stakeholders to ensure it supports victims and survivors of abuse effectively.

This Government is committed to building on these improvements. Following a trial of a dedicated team to handle domestic abuse cases, this has been rolled out across the CMS to support vulnerable customers including where the most challenging or complex domestic abuse is an issue.

This government has extended the consultation that was launched in May 2024 which explored proposals to reform the CMS. This included removing Direct Pay and managing all CMS cases in one service to allow the CMS to tackle non-compliance faster and explore how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be better supported. The consultation closed on 30 September 2024 and a response will be published in due course.

The Department is also progressing a review of the child maintenance calculation, aspects of which were the subject of Dr Callan’s recommendations, to address issues of affordability of liabilities for low-income families. Any changes to the CMS calculation will require further consultation and legislative changes would need parliamentary approval.