Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

In that case, perhaps I had better begin by responding to the points raised by the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker) so that I can release him from these duties as quickly as possible. Let me begin by telling him that he is no nightmare; in fact, I would go so far as to say that those were dream questions, and I will give him the answers. There is already in place a significant array of powers that the existing agency can use to deal with assets that can be seized in certain circumstances. Indeed, if the non-payment and non-co-operation have gone so far that the agency has set bailiffs on, the assets can be taken in that way. Far from that process taking years, as the hon. Gentleman suggests, it can sometimes move quite swiftly. For example, a charging order can be placed on a property. Obviously, it will not be realised until that property is disposed of at some point, and that will take time, but in the end the money is collected. As he and his colleagues have said, this is about getting a message out there. Non-resident parents need to understand that whatever wheeze they come up with, it will not work, and that the agency—now to be the commission—has such an array of powers of seizure and sequestration that the assets cannot be hidden for ever. From now on, in addition to being able to go into bank accounts and take money out directly, make deductions from earnings and so on, we will have a suite of measures targeted at financial and physical assets, so that resources cannot be parked in those areas in order to escape the responsibility of paying child maintenance. The hon. Gentleman raised the right points—that is why I called them dream questions—and I hope that the answers will not cause him any loss of sleep. Let me turn to the points raised by the hon. Member for South-West Bedfordshire (Andrew Selous) about the withdrawal of passports. Everyone who has spoken in the debate has reiterated their support for this measure in principle. The hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) welcomed it for the reasons that he outlined—that it is galling for the parent with care to see a non-resident parent who is pleading poverty taking sometimes quite exotic overseas holidays. That rubs what is happening in the face of the parent with care. It is therefore appropriate that there should be a power to remove passports to cut out that option. Often, it is not the act of removing the passport that is necessary to do the trick, but the threat that that can happen: the mere knowledge that that might well happen if things get to a certain state is enough to make the non-resident parents cough up at some point. The test is not how often passports are withdrawn but the effectiveness of having the sanction in place. The hon. Member for South-West Bedfordshire asked how this might work in respect of identity cards, once they are in place. The way that it may work technically is that the identity card owned by the non-resident parent would have to be surrendered and replaced with an alternative card that did not have the travel authorisation element to it, but all the other functions for which it is necessary to have an ID card could continue to be carried out. Let me say to those who have raised concerns about this that many preliminary steps have to be gone through before it gets to the point where the travel documentation is removed. It will not be removed in some arbitrary way, as was implied in some of the comments that have been made—it is very much a final step after many preliminary actions have taken place. Those safeguards are already in place. The only reason why we are saying that this might still be subject to review—the hon. Member for South-West Bedfordshire asked about this because he was concerned about the last few sentences of my speech—is that it is important to see whether continuing to go through the court-based route, as we have now accepted that we will, imposes unacceptable delays in the administration of this sanction that might have the effect of devaluing it in some way. It is proper for us to be up-front and to say that if that happens—it has been suggested to us that it might be an issue—we would want to have the right to come back to this sanction, because it has to bite and be understood to have teeth. If the court proceedings route proves to get in the way of its effectiveness, it will be right to come back and reconsider the administrative route. Further primary legislation would be required, so there will be any amount of opportunity to revisit it. We have taken fully on board the points made by the Constitution Committee, but I am not going to say that it cannot be reconsidered at some point in the future. Apart from that, I have heard broad acceptance for and a welcoming of the amendments, which strengthen the Bill in a way that those who moved them intended. I am happy to take them into account, and I hope that they will be accepted by the House. Lords amendment agreed to. Lords amendments Nos. 8 to 85 agreed to.