Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

As the Minister said, we have now come to the final group of amendments. When I see a group of amendments headed ““Minor and technical””, I am always tempted to go through them carefully, just in case the Government are trying to sneak through something important. However, in this case the Minister has been straight with us, as he has been during the course of the Bill, and it has been a pleasure to work with him. The Minister again mentioned the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee of the House of Lords—the second time it has been mentioned this afternoon. It is obviously a worthwhile Committee that carefully scrutinises what happens in this place and the other place. The Minister noted that there are three changes in this group of amendments to ensure that resolutions go through under the affirmative procedure, which I am sure will please my hon. Friend the Member for Buckingham (John Bercow), who mentioned the issue at the start of our proceedings this afternoon. I am reassured that the four lobby groups, if I can call them that, that beat the main path to the Minister's door are the same ones that came to see me. One Parent Families/Gingerbread was understandably assiduous in its commentary on the Bill. Families Need Fathers is one of the sensible, mainstream fathers organisations—it is to be distinguished from some of the others, which are not—and I have benefited from my discussions with it. Resolution is particularly well informed on such issues, as the Minister said. He and I know that it would have liked him to go further on certain issues. Those are arguments for another day, but they will not go away. The Law Society of Scotland has its particular issues. There was an acknowledgment in the other place of the need to continue talking to Resolution and the Law Society of Scotland about the 12-month rule. The Minister has said that he wants good co-operation between the family courts and CMEC. They are in the same business and they want to achieve the same ends; we just have to ensure that they do not trip each other up, as it were. I should like to pay tribute, as the Minister did, to those who have worked with us on the Bill during its various stages, including my staff who have helped me greatly.