Schedule 3
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
5:45 pm
Mark Harper (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; Forest of Dean, Conservative)
The Committee will be pleased to hear that I will be brief. I am guessing that the Minister has a technical explanation for the proposal, but I hope that he will address the philosophical concept of computers being able to make decisions in the normal sense of the word, which relates to the point made by the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey.
Computers can only implement instructions laid down for them by human beings. Given past problems, the responsibilities of some of the software providers and the implementation of the IT systems, it would be worth the Minister explaining whether this part of the schedule transfers any responsibility or if, as I suspect, it is just a technical measure to avoid a legal challenge made by people paying maintenance to any aspect of the process that involves an IT system. Perhaps he will explain the use of the words “decision” and “computer” in respect of the wider philosophical point.