Child Support

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 2:53 pm on 9 February 2006.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions) 2:53, 9 February 2006

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord. The figures that I have show that the average waiting time for callers is now 13 seconds for the new system as opposed to 49 seconds for the old system, which is a big improvement over the past 12 months. Obviously, there is a way to go and part of the work that we now wish to undertake within the CSA is to improve on that. Having visited the Northern Ireland CSA, which has a close relationship with the CSA in the rest of the country, I have been impressed with the dedication of staff in the Belfast centre who, as I said earlier, do a difficult job to the best of their abilities.