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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

For clarity, let me help the noble Lord. On the transfer of arrears, we are looking at the potential to sell a tranche of debt. The agency or the commission would get the money for that and there would be a basis on which to distribute it to parents with care, although we do not believe that that is likely to be a significant runner, if a runner at all. If it was, however, the specific consent of the parent with care would and should be required for the debt that was transferred. On write-offs under Clause 31, the noble Lord is right that there are some circumstances in which the parent with care should not have a veto—for example if the non-resident parent or the estate cannot pay or does not have the wherewithal to do that. I also stress that there will be circumstances in which the parent with care may have given consent, but if the commission feels that the parent with care has been unduly got at and pressured to give that consent, it would have to comply with that agreement and would not necessarily have to write off that debt. I hope that the noble Lord will feel more satisfied once he has had a chance to read the record.