Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, I do indeed, as I know the noble Baroness too well to think otherwise. I was simply commenting on her being a children’s champion. Over the past few weeks, I have spoken to judges, magistrates and our own staff, who all consider that such an amendment would simply lengthen the court process when we are working hard to shorten it. People would then begin to debate what was reasonable or a presumption, and we do not want that to happen; we want the court process to be shortened. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Bolton, that if she looks more closely at the research she will see that when fathers contribute to their children, they are usually fathers who are having more contact. Contact and pay for support go together, but often the fathers who do not want to continue to pay their support are the ones that walk away. In fact, we have indications that fathers walk away because of some of the pressures of building a new family and the finances involved in all that. In conclusion—I recognise that it is not a Second Reading debate—I encourage us continually to keep it in mind that, unless we have the paramountcy of the child at heart, not only will that be unfortunate for children but it will affect how people in the courts and the other professionals view how they go about their job. We see ourselves as influencing people; that is why we have legislation and why we have such debates. Let us influence for good and ensure that everyone has clearly in their sights the interests and paramountcy of the child. Therefore, I would be unable to support the amendment.