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Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 83: 83: Clause 86 , page 54, line 30, leave out ““provide that a charge may”” and insert ““recommend that a charge should”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, this group of amendments would leave the decision whether to make a charging order to judicial discretion in a limited number of cases. We want to emphasise that the amendments would not prevent the Lord Chancellor making regulations that would set guidelines—guidelines which a district judge would have to have very good reason not to follow. Regulations under the Bill, as I understand it, would impose a floor below which charging orders could not be made. The circumstances that our amendments envisage do not concern the small amounts of money that are the targets of the regulations. We have in mind, for example, a utilities board with many debts from an individual, all of which are below the threshold. A water authority, for example, might have multiple debts owed to it, each amounting to only £500 or £600. In this case, it would not be able to obtain a charging order. The amendments do not undermine the broad intention of the Government, which we entirely endorse. I beg to move.