Clause 101
Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Vera Baird (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs; Redcar, Labour)
No, the system is part of the regulation-making process that I have already described to the hon. Member for Bournemouth, East. The common financial statement commends itself to us as the appropriate tool, and it is widely used by advice agencies. However, if somebody has come up with a better tool by June—if that is when summer starts—we would be open to the suggestion of using it instead. That is the direction of our thinking at the moment. It is our preferred tool, but there will not be much deviation from a tool that is similar to the common financial statement. Nevertheless, we will leave the options open until the consultation has been held.
If we accepted the amendment, it would prevent the introduction of a common procedure for determining instalments. Each court would carry on making its own assessments based on locally devised criteria, which would add complexity, cost and—overwhelmingly what we do not want—uncertainty. We therefore urge that the amendment be withdrawn.