Clause 2
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
2:15 pm
James Plaskitt (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Warwick and Leamington, Labour)
Well, his view was academic.
On the points that the hon. Gentleman made about the Australian system, I am aware that the information sheets to which he has referred are available on its website—it is possible to download them, although I could not do it. However, I know what the sheets say: they provide introductory information about the issues that they cover—I agree that they cover a copious range of related issues—and then move on to signpost people towards family relationship centres, which are not part of the Australian agency.
The hon. Gentleman seeks to load additional areas of responsibility on to CMEC. That concerns me because we are trying to set up an effective working child maintenance system, and we know from past experience that that is a difficult thing to achieve. I am reluctant to load additional functions on to the organisation when we know that its existing core function is already difficult. It is not as though the Government are not trying to do some of the things mentioned in the papers drawn from the Australian CSA’s website, with which the hon. Gentleman is familiar. We are seeking to provide exactly that support to families who are going through difficult times. However, such work is not being done by the agency or by the Department for Work and Pensions, but by the Department for Children, Schools and Families. What the hon. Gentleman wants to happen will come about in any event.