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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

moved Amendment No. 6: 6: Schedule 1, page 45, line 9, leave out ““one or more”” and insert ““not more than three”” The noble Baroness said: The amendments attempt to secure a little more clarity and precision in the Bill’s description of the commission. The past 10 years of child maintenance have not been beyond reproach. It is therefore essential to the well-being of Britain’s less advantaged young that CMEC does not fail. That starts with the Bill’s proposals being watertight in theory so that they may be watertight in practice. Amendments Nos. 6 and 7 seek to discover the size of the commission. Although we are wary of there being too large a number of directors on the board of any commission, we chose as a maximum three executive directors and four non-executive directors to ensure that the Bill was consistent. Paragraph 20(2) of Schedule 1 dictates that the non-executive functions committee cannot be made up of fewer than three members of the commission. It must therefore be set out that there are three members of the commission. Amendments Nos. 15 and 16 would ensure that any committee or sub-committee bred by the commission would not be entirely unrelated to it. While we do not advocate the committee and the commission having the same membership, as it would inhibit originality of thought and lead to dangerously entrenched membership, an element of continuity between the two bodies is important. We hope that the amendment would help ensure that any committee became a working arm of the commission. We must not waste valuable resources and threaten the success of the Bill by allowing any margin for inefficient and ineffective disputes. If Her Majesty's Government are keen to realise joined-up-government, we should deliver that practice at all levels. I beg to move.