Clause 3 - Contact orders: warning notices
Children and Adoption Bill [Lords]
9:00 am
Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister (Children), Health; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
I echo the comments about the Under-Secretary. I hope that it is not the forthrightness of our arguments on Tuesday that has confined her to her bed. She stoically battled through our proceedings, and we wish her a speedy recovery.
The clause is short and deals with warning notices attached to contact orders. The contact orders should include a warning about the implication of not complying with them. That is crucial, and we will go on to discuss enforcement orders that have penalties for breaching contact orders. There is no detail in the clause, and we want to know what form a warning notice will take and how detailed it will be. Will it set out a tariff of penalties that could befall those breaching a contact order, or will it be just a general warning, as one might get on a unit trust product saying that its value might go up as well as down? How serious will the warning be? Will it be a cigarette packet-type warning, or will it have some punch, as we would like to see?