Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, for moving the amendment, which seeks to extend the current period of 12 months during which parents with a court consent order for child maintenance may not apply to the commission for a maintenance calculation. The amendment would prevent such parents applying for a period of three years. As he indicated, we debated this issue in Committee and on Report. I reiterate the Government’s view on this matter. The purpose of the 12-month rule is twofold. First, when an agreement between parents breaks down, it provides a swift and readily available route into the statutory system so that children are not left for considerable periods with either no maintenance or inadequate arrangements. Secondly, it encourages agreements that contain levels of child maintenance broadly consistent with the amount calculated under the statutory scheme and encourages parents to consider appropriate ongoing maintenance for their children at the time that they divide up their property and assets. We do not want to restrict effective and agreed maintenance agreements to a year, three years or any other period, as I said earlier in response to the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood. Our hope is that parents with effective court orders will not need to turn to the commission for a calculation. Parents themselves must decide whether their children's interests are best served by the provisions of a consent order, by a maintenance calculation made by the commission or by some other route. On principle, we believe that options should remain open to parents, including the option of entering the statutory scheme if it is right for them. On time periods, we consider that the 12-month period strikes the right balance between giving court orders a chance to bed in and providing a means to resolve difficulties quickly and keep payments flowing. A period of three years is too long to wait for a chance to access the statutory scheme. Parents and children should not be left for considerable periods locked into the court system, when maintenance may not be paid or maintenance arrangements for children may no longer be adequate or working. Parents should be able to resolve the issues, gain access to the statutory scheme, and get payments flowing quickly. The noble Lord mentioned that there are 141,000 divorces each year. He will be aware that about 20,000 consent orders are entered into annually. He asserted that parents with care do not agree with our assessment. I am unclear about the evidence base for that assertion; I would like to hear it if he can demonstrate that. He asked for figures on the number of court cases where changes have been made by the CSA—I think that that was his question. If that is the matter on which we have already written to him, the response said that we do not have that information available. I am more than happy to go away to look at that again, but that does not change the Government's fundamental view. We believe that access by the parent to the statutory scheme should be available, because that is the best safeguard for children.