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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

Indeed, I will come on to that. It will also be emphasised that when an appeal has been filed the order will be stayed, so the person affected will have the opportunity to access an independent and impartial tribunal. Additional safeguards include the requirement for the commission to assess the impact on the non-resident parent’s ability to earn a living prior to imposing the order. The question of health issues was raised, such as when a family member needs to get medical support and treatment outside the country. There is no reason why that could not be taken into account in the determination of the application of this measure. It is not a requirement that the commission does this; it is a discretionary power. It does not need to be written into new Clause 39B(4) of the Child Support Act, but there is no reason why we could not think about emphasising the point. It runs right through the Bill that there is always an overriding requirement to consider the welfare of all children involved. I stress that the commission must also assess whether the non-resident parent has wilfully refused or culpably neglected to support his or her children. That is the same test as is currently applied by the court when the CSA makes an application for the non-resident parent to be committed to prison or disqualified from driving. We are dealing with situations where the non-resident parent cannot pay. If the individual is so intent on going on holiday or travelling abroad and doing what they want to do, the remedy is in their own hands: they must pay what they should. It rests with them. It is not as though this is a restriction on anyone for life. It is very much in the hands of the non-resident parent, who should fall within the ambit of this provision only where it is clear that they can pay. All they need to do is pay and this is abrogated straight away. Furthermore, the commission must consider the welfare of any child likely to be affected by the decision, which includes the children of the non-resident parent and members of his or her new family. In order that the commission meets its objective, we need to have a range of provisions that the commission can apply, and it will make clear to non-resident parents early on in the enforcement process that stronger provisions exist and may be used. This measure will be used only after other, lesser measures to recover the outstanding maintenance have been tried but maintenance remains outstanding. Those who seek to deliberately evade their responsibilities to their children must understand the seriousness of their failure to provide their children with financial support. I realise that the Select Committee on the Constitution raised a number of concerns, and the Government have already issued their formal response. The noble Lord, Lord Skelmersdale, referred to it. In summary, we believe that administrative passport surrender will be an effective form of enforcement and deterrent for the reasons I have set out. I appreciate that the committee has posed legitimate questions about the relative importance of the individual in terms of holding a passport and the fact that such decisions are normally made by judicial determination, but I reiterate that we do not underestimate the important role a passport can play in an individual’s ability to earn a living, and the Bill makes it clear that the commission must consider that before imposing the order. We also argue that the commission is best placed, through its prior dealings with the individual, to make the decision on whether the non-resident parent has shown wilful refusal or culpable neglect to pay maintenance. I shall expand on that. It is the commission in its dealings or lack of them with the non-resident parent that knows the history of the case, the basis of the assessment, the number of occasions when deduction from earnings orders have been defeated by someone changing their job, and the whole process by which a non-resident parent may have sought to avoid other enforcement mechanisms by prolonging his or her appeal. Under the wider range of enforcement powers, that information will be available to the commission, which will be able to make a judgment on whether the individual is intent on seeking to pay what is due or simply seeking to avoid it. It knows well, from a long track record of dealing with people who are intent on avoiding their obligations, when people are seeking to do that rather than when they cannot fulfil them. I distinguish that because there are issues around the withdrawal of travel rights from, for example, people involved in soccer hooliganism. The court does that because the court would have been involved in the process of dealing with those people for what they have been up to prior to that. We are dealing here with a situation where the commission has been trying to deal with this individual; it knows their track record and what they have done or not done, so it is best placed to make these judgments—which, at the end of the day, are subject to a right of appeal and a process before the court. There is a balance in all of this, and that balance should rest with the right of children to be maintained by non-resident parents or parents with care. I hope noble Lords will be assured of the merits of this proposed action and feel able to withdraw the amendment.