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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

I do not know about other Members of the Committee, but ever since this Bill hit your Lordships' House for First Reading, I have been inundated with advice from all over the place. I think the Minister has held two, if not three, meetings on the Bill in my presence. Outside organisations are consistently giving me advice. Needless to say, I agree with some of the advice and not with the other, but that is beside the point—the advice is there. The noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, wants to set up a new committee, a child support advisory committee, to give yet more specialist advice on the orders that will flow from time to time from this Bill. He made reference to the SSAC—the Social Security Advisory Committee—which already exists. I also noted the 10th report of the Select Committee in another place. My reaction is that it is one thing to extend the remit of the SSAC but quite another to set up a new and specialised committee. In this case, it is so specialised that half the time it will not be needed. There will be erratic need for advice to be given, as and when orders are proposed. Another small, niggling point is that there is a provision in the rules governing the SSAC that, in normal circumstances, any order that flows from a Bill within six months of Royal Assent does not have to be referred to it unless the Secretary of State feels that there is a particular and peculiar need. I do not see that provision in this set of amendments, but I could have missed it. The other thing is that of course I recognise that there may be occasions when it is necessary to override the SSAC and for the Secretary of State to do things so fast that there is not time to refer things to the committee, whether that is the committee that the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, wants, or the SSAC. I recognise that he has incorporated that into the formulation for his new committee; but to have nine to 11 people sitting around waiting for something to happen—I am afraid not.