New Clause 19
Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill
4:45 pm
James Plaskitt (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Warwick and Leamington, Labour)
I welcome the opportunity to discuss new clause 19. The commission will need to keep both parents informed. However, we must be clear: the commission’s role is to consider the position of both parents and the welfare of the child or children involved. Its duty is not to act solely as the representative of the parent with care.
Clauses 20 to 28 contain a number of administrative provisions to streamline the enforcement process and enable the commission to take swift and effective enforcement action. The parent with care has the opportunity to contest maintenance calculations at an earlier stage, and giving them the opportunity to make additional representations will not assist the court further in making the right decision; indeed, it could result in a delay to the enforcement process and incur additional costs.
Where enforcement hearings are held in open court, the parent with care can watch the proceedings, although they have no right to make representations to the court. In practice, however, magistrates courts usually hear such cases in the family court, where they have a power to exclude persons who are not directly involved in the case. The court has discretion to permit a person who has adequate grounds for attending to be present, although they still do not have the right to make representations.
Subsection (b) of the new clause would give the parent with care the right to apply to a magistrates court or appeal tribunal to effect collection and enforcement measures under clauses 20 to 28. That would not be feasible, however, as most of those measures would be administrative and the responsibility of the commission, not the courts.
The new clause would therefore delay the enforcement process and greatly affect the court’s business. In view of that, I hope that the hon. Gentleman will agree to withdraw the motion.