Clause 15
Child Maintenance and Other Payments
11:15 am
Michael Weir (Spokesperson (Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform; Energy; Work and Pensions); Angus, Scottish National Party)
These agreements are enforceable. If one party is not implementing the agreement, there is a route whereby that could be enforced relatively quickly. It is not a case of there being no flow of maintenance. The danger in what the Minister proposes is that, if an agreement is entered into and one party suddenly decides after 12 months, for whatever reason, that they want to overturn it, it can be overturned by going to CMEC, irrespective of whether it is fair. That will lead to a dispute between the parties that will lead to people being reluctant to enter into agreements in the first place.