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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

moved Amendment No. 51: 51: Clause 6, page 2, line 27, at end insert— ““(1A) The Secretary of State may only make regulations under subsection (1) when he is satisfied that the Commission is providing a satisfactory service to parents and children in terms of its duties under this Act. (1B) In subsection (1A), the provision by the Commission of ““satisfactory service”” shall be assessed by an appropriate body to be determined by the Secretary of State by regulations.”” The noble Lord said: Clause 6 deals with fees. Amendment No. 51 attempts to say that unless the service is going to be dramatically improved, why are fees being charged of people who are trying to get payments? I have had considerable briefing, which I could go through at length, but the gist of much of it is that if the fees are charged to the parent who is looking after the child, is not that a disincentive to use the service? That is a danger, and we need some clarification of that. Here we are talking about people for whom every penny counts. Can we have a clarification about the intention and some guarantee that this will not happen? It is very worrying. In Amendment No. 51, we are asking for ““a satisfactory service””. I hope that the Minister does not take this as any kind of affront, but it is not unreasonable to ask for a satisfactory service. At the moment, people do not perceive the Government to have a moral right to charge a fee for this service. There are a variety of historical reasons for that, and I do not know who gets the most blame, but that is an unproductive game. They have effectively failed. We do not know what is going on with the new commission. Can we have an idea of what fee will be charged and how much pressure might be applied to charge fees to parents with care? I beg to move.