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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

I hesitate to intervene in an issue where views are strongly held. I suspect that all of us want to see responsible parenting, and anything which can be done to encourage it should be done. But, again, I have a real hesitation about putting what I regard as rhetorical statements in the Bill in the hope that somehow they will affect behaviour. The noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, said that this would be a great help to judges. However, most of the children we are talking about do not come out of divorce arrangements, so their cases do not go before the courts. They come out of informal or cohabitation relationships—