Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
10:47 am
Lord McKenzie: The issue of whether there should be a register of agreements is something that we want the commission to determine in due course. It might wish to arrange pilots to enable it to make that decision. There are arguments both ways about a register of voluntary agreements, and there are practical issues concerning the extent to which it could be kept up to date and the resources that the commission would have to deploy in keeping it current. I think that minutes of agreement are the Scottish equivalent of consent orders, and they will proceed on their current basis. The one key change will be that, once the section 6 compulsion goes, a claim for benefits by one or other of the participants will not break the agreement. It will continue, subject to the 12-month rule, under which either party can elect to come out of the agreement.