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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

Earlier, I signalled that I was in general agreement with this set of amendments. I most certainly shall not renege on that. However, unlike the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, with all her experience of these matters, I feel that it is important to include something similar to these amendments in the Bill. The noble Baroness made an objection, saying that, although the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, felt that it would be helpful for the courts, the mediation service, solicitors and, I suspect, the judges to be able to point to words such as these, it would be equally helpful, for example, to Ventura or to a member of the staff of the commission when seeking to persuade someone that, notwithstanding the extra enforcement powers mentioned by the Minister, this is a duty on both parents. When I spoke earlier about a wider interpretation of ““maintenance””, I meant exactly that. The noble Lord and the noble Baroness have been talking about how to define that wider interpretation of ““maintenance””, which is not just money. I have no doubt that, like the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, the Minister will object to these amendments by arguing that the CMEC cannot perform all roles and therefore stretch its resources. I can allow the Minister to anticipate my argument against this. It is that the encouragement of a relationship between the absent parent and their child is not just a case of emotional welfare. If the non-resident parent develops a relationship with their child, they will mostly develop a feeling of responsibility towards him and therefore be more inclined to support him financially. In fact, it promises to be a better enforcement of duty than any commission, court or sanction. I certainly support the idea behind these amendments.