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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

moved Amendment No. 67: 67: Clause 10, page 5, line 18, at end insert— ““( ) Any secondary legislation relating to the Commission must from the date of Royal Assent be made subject to a formal reference to the Child Support Advisory Committee.”” The noble Lord said: I am happy to open a new day in a new week in Committee by moving Amendment No. 67 which is tabled in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Addington. I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 73 to 75 and 85. This clutch of amendments makes any regulations relating to the new commission set up by the Bill subject to a formal reference to the child support advisory committee. The model is clear. Members of the Committee will be familiar with the work of the Social Security Advisory Committee, which has been an integral part of benefit law and policy making for many years. It provides a service by consulting on draft regulations that the department is bringing forward or which are in gestation within the department. It gives advice on those regulations, consults with stakeholders and produces conclusions that lead to a published report that is available to both Houses of Parliament when the regulations are debated. When I started to cut my teeth on social security legislation in an earlier incarnation in the House of Commons, it gave me considerable confidence that I had not completely missed the point when dealing with abstruse 90-minute debates on detailed technical regulations. For people who were coming to the subject for the first time, or who had some knowledge of a particular area but did not know the wider context of social security law, it was an invaluable aid that gave them—not just me—confidence that these were important matters of public policy. Having spent 22 years in the House of Commons and two or three in your Lordships’ House—