Child Support

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

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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, affordability and cost-effectiveness are words that come clearly to mind in any policy that is going to be developed. I cannot say any more than that. We will have to wait and see what Sir David's redesign proposals are concerned with. We found it difficult to justify an expenditure of £300 million of additional money for a child support system which, to all intents, is widely thought to be in serious difficulty and which we believe to be not fit for purpose. It would have been risky. That is why we felt we could make some initial investment to deal with some immediate problems for more front-line staff, but on overall expenditure for the future, the first thing is to see what Sir David comes up with in terms of the redesign.