There have been no prosecutions undertaken in the last three years due solely to parents failing to report “increases in their income”. Prosecutions would be undertaken by CMG for under-declaration of income under the Fraud Act or 14(A)2 of the Child Support Act. These prosecutions focus on wilful non-disclosure of income streams and rarely relate to a single failure to disclose in-year increases.

We will have prosecuted people with an element of non-disclosures (of increases to income) but these non-disclosures will only represent a small part of the overall prosecution on each case. Therefore we cannot separate increases to income as a single prosecution type.

We complete Annual reviews using HMRC data and where we identify backdated increases to income, we will reassess the historical assessment and raise any arrears, taking steps to collect. If the paying parent then fails to pay these arrears we can register the liability in court and take enforcement action to secure the debt, including – in some cases – enforcement including imprisonment. These actions however, relate to the debt (and failure to pay), and not the “increase in income”.

The Department has not made any estimate of the number of parents who do not report increases of 25% or more to their income to Child Maintenance Services. Such changes, where not reported, will be picked up from income data obtained by HMRC at annual review. Where a parent is required to report a change in income but does not, then this change can be backdated to when it occurred.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) uses information from a wide range of sources, including third party information, to carry out civil and criminal investigations. These have secured over £126 billion in additional compliance revenue since 2010. It is not possible to say how many parents have provided information as HMRC does not centrally collate the management information in this format, nor does it centrally collate information regarding how many prosecutions and investigations have been instigated as a result of allegations of false tax returns in respect of child maintenance liabilities.

HMRC’s 26,000 (FTE) strong customer compliance group workforce of risk and intelligence analysts, compliance officers and fraud investigators tackle the full range of compliance risks. HMRC compliance staff are assigned to cases across all HMRC risks and customer behaviours and the cases typically involve investigating a range of potential issues. Therefore it is not possible to state exactly how many staff are deployed to a single specific risk, as this will be one of many issues a compliance officer could cover.

HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions have been working together on Child Maintenance issues since 2009. During this time, both departments have worked collaboratively to increase their knowledge of the IT and business processes and to develop and improve the way in which they share information. There is no joint formal training programme in place but HMRC has led awareness sessions for Child Maintenance Group (CMG) on HMRC processes and interpreting PAYE and Self-Assessment data. HMRC also provides on-going assistance to CMG to help them resolve issues as and when required.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) uses information from a wide range of sources, including third party information, to carry out civil and criminal investigations. These have secured over £126 billion in additional compliance revenue since 2010. It is not possible to say how many parents have provided information as HMRC does not centrally collate the management information in this format, nor does it centrally collate information regarding how many prosecutions and investigations have been instigated as a result of allegations of false tax returns in respect of child maintenance liabilities.

HMRC’s 26,000 (FTE) strong customer compliance group workforce of risk and intelligence analysts, compliance officers and fraud investigators tackle the full range of compliance risks. HMRC compliance staff are assigned to cases across all HMRC risks and customer behaviours and the cases typically involve investigating a range of potential issues. Therefore it is not possible to state exactly how many staff are deployed to a single specific risk, as this will be one of many issues a compliance officer could cover.

HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions have been working together on Child Maintenance issues since 2009. During this time, both departments have worked collaboratively to increase their knowledge of the IT and business processes and to develop and improve the way in which they share information. There is no joint formal training programme in place but HMRC has led awareness sessions for Child Maintenance Group (CMG) on HMRC processes and interpreting PAYE and Self-Assessment data. HMRC also provides on-going assistance to CMG to help them resolve issues as and when required.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) uses information from a wide range of sources, including third party information, to carry out civil and criminal investigations. These have secured over £126 billion in additional compliance revenue since 2010. It is not possible to say how many parents have provided information as HMRC does not centrally collate the management information in this format, nor does it centrally collate information regarding how many prosecutions and investigations have been instigated as a result of allegations of false tax returns in respect of child maintenance liabilities.

HMRC’s 26,000 (FTE) strong customer compliance group workforce of risk and intelligence analysts, compliance officers and fraud investigators tackle the full range of compliance risks. HMRC compliance staff are assigned to cases across all HMRC risks and customer behaviours and the cases typically involve investigating a range of potential issues. Therefore it is not possible to state exactly how many staff are deployed to a single specific risk, as this will be one of many issues a compliance officer could cover.

HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions have been working together on Child Maintenance issues since 2009. During this time, both departments have worked collaboratively to increase their knowledge of the IT and business processes and to develop and improve the way in which they share information. There is no joint formal training programme in place but HMRC has led awareness sessions for Child Maintenance Group (CMG) on HMRC processes and interpreting PAYE and Self-Assessment data. HMRC also provides on-going assistance to CMG to help them resolve issues as and when required.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) uses information from a wide range of sources, including third party information, to carry out civil and criminal investigations. These have secured over £126 billion in additional compliance revenue since 2010. It is not possible to say how many parents have provided information as HMRC does not centrally collate the management information in this format, nor does it centrally collate information regarding how many prosecutions and investigations have been instigated as a result of allegations of false tax returns in respect of child maintenance liabilities.

HMRC’s 26,000 (FTE) strong customer compliance group workforce of risk and intelligence analysts, compliance officers and fraud investigators tackle the full range of compliance risks. HMRC compliance staff are assigned to cases across all HMRC risks and customer behaviours and the cases typically involve investigating a range of potential issues. Therefore it is not possible to state exactly how many staff are deployed to a single specific risk, as this will be one of many issues a compliance officer could cover.

HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions have been working together on Child Maintenance issues since 2009. During this time, both departments have worked collaboratively to increase their knowledge of the IT and business processes and to develop and improve the way in which they share information. There is no joint formal training programme in place but HMRC has led awareness sessions for Child Maintenance Group (CMG) on HMRC processes and interpreting PAYE and Self-Assessment data. HMRC also provides on-going assistance to CMG to help them resolve issues as and when required.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) uses information from a wide range of sources, including third party information, to carry out civil and criminal investigations. These have secured over £126 billion in additional compliance revenue since 2010. It is not possible to say how many parents have provided information as HMRC does not centrally collate the management information in this format, nor does it centrally collate information regarding how many prosecutions and investigations have been instigated as a result of allegations of false tax returns in respect of child maintenance liabilities.

HMRC’s 26,000 (FTE) strong customer compliance group workforce of risk and intelligence analysts, compliance officers and fraud investigators tackle the full range of compliance risks. HMRC compliance staff are assigned to cases across all HMRC risks and customer behaviours and the cases typically involve investigating a range of potential issues. Therefore it is not possible to state exactly how many staff are deployed to a single specific risk, as this will be one of many issues a compliance officer could cover.

HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions have been working together on Child Maintenance issues since 2009. During this time, both departments have worked collaboratively to increase their knowledge of the IT and business processes and to develop and improve the way in which they share information. There is no joint formal training programme in place but HMRC has led awareness sessions for Child Maintenance Group (CMG) on HMRC processes and interpreting PAYE and Self-Assessment data. HMRC also provides on-going assistance to CMG to help them resolve issues as and when required.

Child Maintenance Group’s Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) was established on 1 April 2014.

For the financial year 2014 – 2015 the FIU conducted 3,749 investigations resulting in both civil and criminal investigations.

For the financial year 2015 – 2016 the FIU conducted 3,186 investigations resulting in both civil and criminal investigations.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave the Hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion on 29 February 2016 to Question UIN 27465.

Child Maintenance Group’s Financial Investigation Unit (FIU) was established on 1 April 2014.

During the year 2014/15, the FIU initiated 65 criminal prosecutions and also enabled civil enforcement action on 1,697 cases, collecting a total of £528,201.

During the year 2015/16, the FIU initiated 70 criminal prosecutions and also enabled civil enforcement action on 1,424 cases, collecting a total of £581,217.

The Secretary of State will consider any evidence provided in relation to any element of a Maintenance Calculation when making a new liability decision, or reconsidering an existing one.

I am happy to help arrange that meeting. I know that many of us in our own constituency surgeries hear about the behaviour of the non-resident parent and how they give everyone the runaround and do not fulfil their duties by helping to pay for the children for whom they are responsible. As she knows, we introduced a new statutory child maintenance service for parents who are unable to make a family-based arrangement. It should be bringing speedier processing of applications, simpler calculations and faster enforcement action, but I will ensure that she has the meeting that she needs to straighten out that case.