Background
The Secretary of State made clear in his statement to Parliament that he believes that we need to fundamentally examine and redesign the way in which the child support system operates. He asked me to lead this redesign and report to him with proposals by July 2006.
I am aware of the importance for millions of children and their parents of getting child support arrangements right. Of the 7 million households with dependent children in Great Britain, around 2.4 million have a living non-resident parent. The Child Support Agency already handles around 1.5 million such cases - involving over 2 million children - but there are clear and well-documented issues around the current system.
Designing a more successful system for the future is clearly a significant challenge, but I know that many people and groups have well-formed views on how child support should operate.
The consultation stage of the redesign ended on Friday 19 May 2006. I met with a wide range of people and received a great deal of letters and emails – all of which contributed greatly to the future of child support. Thank you to all who contributed.
Sir David Henshaw