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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

On the latter point, one could envisage that it would normally be the case that at least one member of the board would serve on a committee or sub-committee, but if we were to preclude the alternative we might rule out situations where perhaps a minor technical issue needed to be addressed or outside expertise needed to be available to take forward a particular policy development. All that is entirely appropriate. The noble Baroness is absolutely right to say that if that happens, there should be processes for reporting back and thus ensuring continuity of information about the deliberations about a particular sub-committee. However, if we were to say that there could never be a situation where a member of the board did not serve on a committee or sub-committee, that would be unduly restrictive. On the first point, I do not have a fixed view about the number envisaged by the commission because I have not checked the numbers sitting on the boards of other NDPBs. I imagine that it varies. As I have said, it is for the commission to determine that. Obviously it will have clear reporting lines about its immediate objectives back to the Secretary of State and it will want to make sure that it has the mix of skills that it needs. Similarly, I imagine that it would have to have due regard to the fact that it does not want to overload the board with people who are not making a contribution. However, I think that we need to leave it to the commission.