Child Support
(Enforcement) Bill
Third Reading
10.19am
Motion
Moved by
That the Bill do now pass.
(Con)
My Lords, on behalf of my noble friend Lady Redfern, I have a few
brief comments to make. I express my sincere gratitude to my
noble friend for her stewardship of the Bill in this House. She
has been struck down by that ghastly virus and cannot be with us
today, but I am glad to say that she is making a good
recovery.
It is an honour to pick up on the hard work of the noble
Baroness, Lady Redfern, in introducing the Bill and leading both
its Second Reading and Committee stage. I am pleased that the
Bill has now reached its final stage in this House today. I thank
the Minister and his officials for their support, as well as
those noble Lords who supported the Bill on Second Reading. I am
of course grateful to my honourable friend for introducing the
Bill in the other place, and to , who stood in for Ms
Baillie during Third Reading.
The Bill will make essential improvements to child maintenance
processes. Crucially, it will get money to children more quickly.
Finally, I say on behalf of the noble Baroness, Lady Redfern,
what a privilege it has been to take the Bill through its stages
in this House, and for me to follow up today. I hope that it can
now move to Royal Assent and implementation as quickly as
possible. I beg to move.
(Lab)
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Redfern, for piloting
the Bill through this House and, along with the rest of the
House, wish her a speedy recovery. I also thank the noble
Baroness, Lady Pidding, for standing in for her today so crisply
and effectively. Thanks are due too to the Minister and his team,
both for their work on this Bill and for their briefing of Peers
to help us understand the context in which it sits. I am grateful
also to Gingerbread and the charities that work so hard in this
area.
We on these Benches wholeheartedly support the principle that
non-resident parents should pay child maintenance and that there
should be enforcement for those who fail to pay. The Bill should
make a small but welcome contribution to that end by speeding up
the process by which the non-resident parent who is in arrears
can be made to pay what they owe. I hope that in future, we will
see a further reduction in the amount of child maintenance that
goes unpaid. There is still work to be done to increase
compliance with the child support regime and to ensure that it
becomes the norm that both parents continue to support their
children, whatever happens to their relationship with one
another.
For now, I simply thank again the noble Baroness, Lady Redfern,
and , and wish the Bill
well.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work
and Pensions () (Con)
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Pidding, speaking
on behalf of the main sponsor of the Bill, my noble friend Lady
Redfern, on ensuring that the Bill has reached its final stages.
I wish my noble friend Lady Redfern a speedy recovery.
As mentioned at Second Reading, the Bill has the full backing of
His Majesty’s Government, and it gives me great pleasure to speak
in support of it today once again. I also thank the noble
Baroness, Lady Sherlock, for the thoughtful questions she raised
at Second Reading. I hope the letter I sent in response has
provided her with some clarity on the issues raised. I very much
take note of her comments today.
This Government are committed to improving the support the Child
Maintenance Service offers to separated families, so the Bill
makes important improvements to CMS enforcement processes by
amending existing powers. Once commenced, this will allow the
Secretary of State to make an administrative liability order
where the paying parent has failed to pay an amount of child
maintenance, without the need to make an application to
court.
On the point raised at Second Reading by the noble Lord, , who is not in his place, I
would like to reassure the House that the central protections for
paying parents will be provided through secondary legislation.
This will give parents the right of appeal, while setting out
some parameters around the appeal process. First, this will
include the period within which the right of appeal may be
exercised, and, secondly, the powers of the court in respect of
such appeals. Secondary legislation will follow the affirmative
procedure, so your Lordships will be able to debate the proposals
eventually when they are put forward.
To conclude, I am very pleased that there is cross-party support
for my noble friend’s Bill, and that this House will agree to its
final passage today.
Bill passed.
