Child Support Agency And Parliament

EDM number 1307 in 1993-94, proposed by John Spellar on 25/05/1994.

That this House notes that the honourable Member for Paisley South wrote to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security on 29th March 1994 on behalf of a constituent who was experiencing great difficulties at the hands of the Child Support Agency and that the Minister referred the letter to Ros Hepplewhite, Chief Executive of the Agency, for reply; further notes that on 12th April, the honourable Member for Paisley South supplemented his original letter with medical evidence provided by his constituent's general practitioner; is appalled that Mr A. Bowman, the Manager of the Child Support Agency Centre at Falkirk, replied on 12th May that the rules of confidentiality prevented him from discussing the case; demands to know what rules of confidentiality preclude a paid officer of an executive agency from allowing an honourable Member to represent a constituent; believes that the Child Support Agency increasingly operates as a law unto itself, and appears to have the consent of Ministers in the Department of Social Security in holding itself beyond account to Parliament; and calls for an immediate, independent and thorough investigation into the operation of the Agency.

This motion has been signed by a total of 57 MPs.