PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Children: Maintenance (18 June 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will estimate the cost of (a) the tender and bid process for the Child Maintenance Options contract, (b) his Department assisting G4S to fulfil the contract, (c) his Department's in-house option for continued delivery before it was contracted out and (d) bringing the work back in-house should the G4S contract be terminated early.

Asked by:
John McDonnell (Independent)

The Child Maintenance Options service was introduced in July 2008 to provide information and support to help separating parents make an informed choice about their child maintenance arrangement. As with all previous tender and bid processes for this work, the cost of the tender is within the Department's budget.

The most recent Child Maintenance Options contract is available to view at: https://online.contractsfinder.businesslink.gov.uk/Common/View%20Notice.aspx?site=1000&lang=en&noticeid=1072427&fs=true However, to identify specific costs associated with this contract would incur a disproportionate cost.

The Department did not assist G4S to fulfil the contract. It is part of planned business continuity arrangements to use colleagues from the Department in order to take some calls where volumes exceed contracted levels.

Since the service was introduced in 2008 it has always been contracted out. There are no plans to bring the service in-house, and to calculate the cost of doing so would be to provide new information at disproportionate cost.

Answered by:
Steve Webb (Liberal Democrat)
24 June 2014