Clause 25
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
3:15 pm
Danny Alexander (Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Work & Pensions; Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Liberal Democrat)
I should like to make a couple of brief points relating to this clause and to subsequent clauses on enforcement. I will raise them now, with your leave, Mr. Taylor, because they pertain to this clause and may allow me not to raise them in future. I should like to mention the conceptual basis of the enforcement powers that we are considering in respect of both this clause on travel authorisation and later provisions on driving licences and curfews.
On consistency of application, it seems, from the way in which the Minister has described the use of the enforcement powers, that those powers will be tailored as much as possible to the circumstances of the individual. That has been made clear, not least in the previous debate, where we discussed whether someone for whom a passport is necessary for work but a driving licence is not might have their driving licence taken away, and how someone in the reverse circumstances might have their passport taken away. That seems to make a great deal of sense.
I wonder whether the Minister has considered the extent to which that could lead to discrepancies or perceptions of unfairness between individuals. For example, is there a risk of perceived unfairness in respect of two brothers in similar circumstances facing different sanctions applied in relation to child maintenance?