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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

Perhaps I may put two brief questions to the Minister. The first relates to transition. Will he help me to understand Schedule 5 more clearly? As I take it, there is a case load in the two statutory systems. Should an NRP have a new relationship under the new, third system, that will potentially require a recalculation for the parent with care in one of the existing statutory schemes. At that point, that case will be pulled over to the new system. Can I take it from my noble friend that it will not be assumed that that existing statutory case, irrespective of activity in it, will go automatically into the voluntary system? I would be horrified if that were to happen. If somebody is in the statutory system and is taken by default into the new system because a new case under the new system affects them and their income has to be recalculated—for example, the person concerned may go from supporting one family to supporting two—there must be a presumption in favour of the statutory system unless the person chooses to go into the voluntary system. With a new case, one could argue that it is different: the person concerned is going into it with their eyes open. But it seems unwise to tell somebody who is in the statutory system that they are to go into the voluntary system unless they choose to opt in to the statutory system. Will the Minister clarify that? My apprehensions may be groundless. My second question arises from some of the statistics in the briefing, which made me raise an eyebrow. Has the Minister reflected on the implication of the fact that twice as many non-resident parents as parents with care want the voluntary system? Can he think why? I can suggest several reasons: they think that they will get a better deal; they think that they will pay less money; they think that there will be less pressure on them to pay; and they think that they will be able to hug knowledge and information that she—the parent with care—will not have and which will allow them, to a degree, to control what they pay. The question obviously belongs to other debates as well, but if there is any statistic that should alarm the Minister about the potential for the voluntary system to be grabbed by NRPs, if they can, it is the one that I have just given. It can mean only that NRPs will seek to get a better deal for themselves. The perception is not necessarily shared by the parent with care. This frightens me.