Office of the Commissioner
PO Box 61791
London
SW1P 9NT
E [email address]
W www.childmaintenance.org
Mr Trevor Boult
Ref: VTR 1359
[FOI #14537 email]
Date: 16 October 2009
Dear Mr Boult,
Thank you for your Freedom of Information request dated 10 July 2009. Your request has
been considered under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FoI Act). Please
accept our apologies for the delay in replying. Please find below a copy of your request
together with a corresponding response.
Request
I would like to request the following information
(1) Details and out come of all legal cases taken against the Child support agency
(2) Copies of all expense claims made by any directors of the Child support agency since
2004
(3) For each of the financial years covering the period 2005-2009 I would like to know the
total number of each of the following;
(3.1) Complaints against the Child Support Agency leading to a finding of maladministration
by the agency.
(3.2) Complaints against the Child Support Agency leading to a finding that the CSA had
unlawfully gathered information.
(3.3) Complaints against the CSA leading to the CSA changing its records to remove
unlawfully gathered or unlawfully stored information.
(3.4) Complaints against the CSA leading to a finding that the CSA had either misstated the
law or misdirected itself in law.
(3.5) Complaints against the CSA leading to the CSA making a payment of compensation to
the complainant.
(4) I understand that one of the changes since CMECH was introduced was a requirement to
speed up payment of arrears.
(4.1) Please confirm how many cases of agreed payments of arrears with payments expected
to last more than 2 years have unilaterally now been reassessed to be paid within 2 years?
(4.2) Please break down the expected percentage of NRP's net income the new shorter
proposed repayments will mean.
(5) In order to enable me to make an independent assessment of the causes of complaints
against CSA / CMEC I would be grateful if you would forward to me;
(5.1) Any guidance prepared (within the last three years) for managers of CSA debt
enforcement teams (or teams of CSA staff charged with collecting arrears) as to appropriate
key performance indicators to be used for assessing their team's performance.
(5.2) Any guidance provided (within the last three years) to managers of CSA debt
enforcement teams (or teams of CSA staff charged with collecting arrears) as to appropriate
key performance indicators to be used for assessing the performance of individual team
members.
(5.3) Any guidance provided (within the last three years) to managers of CSA debt
enforcement teams (or teams of CSA staff charged with collecting arrears) as to appropriate
reasons for instituting individual performance improvement plans with individual team
members.
(5.4) The definitions of all key performance indicators currently used with CSA debt
enforcement teams (or teams of CSA staff charged with collecting arrears.
(5.5) The numbers of CSA staff disciplined as a result of a finding of maladministration
against them for each of the last five years
Response
The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (the Commission) took over
responsibility for the Child Support Agency on 1 November 2008.
The information you requested falls under Exemption 21 of the FoI Act, which covers
information which is already reasonably accessible. This is because we have previously
provided you with some of this information, in response to previous FoI requests, and the
remainder is published on the whatdotheyknow website.
In response to your specific questions.
1. Please refer to our FoI responses to you dated 11 June 2009 (Ref. VTR1049), 17 July
2009 (Ref. VTR1118) and 17 August (Ref. VTR 1413).
2. Please refer to our FoI responses dated 7 August 2009 (Ref. VTR1049) and 16
September 2009 (Ref. VTR 1583).
3.1 – 3.4 Responses to the information you requested is published on the
whatdotheyknow.com website. Our response (Ref. VTR 1245) can be accessed at:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/outcome_of_complaints_against_th#incoming-
34602.
4.1 – 4.2 Responses to the information you requested is published on the
whatdotheyknow.comwebsite. Our response
(Ref. VTR 365) can be accessed at:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/csacmech_number_of_cases_of_acce#incoming-
31498.
5.1 – 5.5 Responses to the information you requested is published on the
whatdotheyknow.com website. Our response (Ref. VTR 1298) can be accessed at:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/performance_indicators_for_child#incoming-34603
If you have any queries about this letter please contact me quoting the reference number
above.
Yours sincerely
Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission
Freedom of Information Act Focal Point
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Your right to complain under the Freedom of Information Act
If you are not happy with this response you may request an internal review by e-mailing
[email address] or by writing to Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, Freedom of
Information Act Focal Point, PO Box 61791, London, SW1P 9NT. Any review request should be submitted within two
months of the date of this letter.
If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review you may apply directly to the Information Commissioner’s
Office for a decision. Generally the Commissioner cannot make a decision unless you have exhausted our own complaints
procedure. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF
www.ico.gov.uk
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