| (a) | We recommend that, if the power to incur expenditure is sought in the future, the Department should present a final draft report so that the Committee is able to provide reliable advice to the House on the necessity for the proposed expenditure and the amount proposed. We further recommend that the Department should give a clear indication of when it is intended to lay the final Report before the House so that the Committee can assess the urgency of the matter (Paragraph 8).
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| (b) | We recommend that the Report laid before the House should give a detailed breakdown of the expenditure within the Department and that the expected timing of this expenditure should be made clear (Paragraph 9).
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| (c) | We recommend that the amount, nature and timing of the financial liabilities that will be accrued by signing a contract with Affinity should be stated on the face of the Report (Paragraph 10).
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| (d) | We recommend that the Report to be laid before the House should make clear how the risks of signing a contract prior to Royal Assent will be minimised, particularly to avoid legal proceedings for breach of contract (Paragraph 11).
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| (e) | The House should be told what unavoidable expenditure there will be in the event of the Bill not being enacted or being substantively amended (Paragraph 11).
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| (f) | We believe that it may be possible to ensure that Affinity does not begin the Child Support-specific work until after Royal Assent by relatively minor adjustments to the timetable, thus avoiding the accrual of financial liabilities with Affinity. The Report to be laid before the House should specify when Affinity will commence work that is specifically related to the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Bill (Paragraph 12).
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| (g) | We expect the Department to take careful note of the conclusions and recommendations contained in the Public Accounts Committee's report on Improving the Delivery of Government IT projects (Paragraph 14).
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| (h) | We welcome the assurance given by the witnesses that, if the new IT system is not in place in the target period (late 2001), the Child Support reforms will be delayed until the system is fully operational (Paragraph 15).
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| (i) | While the power to incur expenditure in this way has been passed into law, we believe it would be appropriate to consider how best the House and its Committees should deal with any future similar cases. We therefore recommend that the arrangements are considered by the Procedure Committee and we should welcome that Committee's view on the procedure to be adopted in future (Paragraph 16).
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| (j) | The Committee accepts in principle that a realistic, properly costed and suitably safeguarded amount of expenditure should be authorised under the power to incur expenditure in order that the new Child Support arrangements can be implemented without delay (Paragraph 17).
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| (k) | We recommend that when the Secretary of State's report has been finalised a copy is provided to the Committee prior to the laying before the House so that the Committee may provide the assurance and advice which we believe should be available when the House considers the Report (Paragraph 17).
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