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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

I suggest that the noble Lord is putting words into my mouth. I have never suggested that I disagree with a voluntary system—provided that it works—sitting side by side with a statutory system. What I am suspicious of is those cases where violence might be involved; and those cases in which for some reason a much lower amount is struck in the voluntary system, even though, presumably, the advice and support service would say what the statutory-system amount was. But there might be all kinds of reasons, as the Minister predicated, why in a voluntary system the two parents might come to a much lower figure. Later, we will discuss what the courts might do, which is another complication in all this. I do not think that we shall get much further today, but if we all sit down and read what we have discussed, we might well come to a sensible agreement. It need not be a compromise, but a sensible agreement. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 27 and 28 not moved.]