Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, I think that it would be very difficult to put the provision into operation, except to say that the child’s needs must be paramount again. It is the old argument. I do not see how you compensate in difficult situations between two adults without causing problems for the child. The other point that I should like to make—I had wanted to get it in for the whole of the Bill, and I only wish that I had tabled an amendment—is that if we are to have this kind of measure, we really should find a way of ensuring that men and women, but mainly fathers, I fear, who fail to keep their side of the contact bargain when they are the non-resident partner are encouraged to do so by similar amendments. I am sorry that I have not done that. However, I would like to place on record my view that, in considering these matters, we should ensure that non-resident parents who make and break promises are as much at fault as any resident parent trying to care for children who also breaches those promises.