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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

My Lords, again, in a similar mode, I listened to the careful way in which the noble Baroness, Lady Verma, moved the amendment. I absolutely concur with the route that she is taking. Taking out Schedule 6 is a pretty blunt instrument, because it would mean that we could not even share data with HMRC, which is not particularly sensible. The mood in which the noble Baroness introduced the amendment was more of concern about how it is done and about some of the mechanics and safeguards that are necessary. She is quite right to be worried about that as recent child support details have gone awry and gone missing in rather grand form. I hope that the Minister can say whether the Government and the department have looked again at all their compliance and data protection requirements. To remove Schedule 6 would be a step too far. The noble Baroness is quite right and she reflects the view on all sides of the House that these sharing powers need to be handled with careful compliance rules and protocols, bearing in mind that the commission is not the department. As Members of Parliament we are able to have direct access to Ministers and hold them to account. That is not necessarily going to be the case in these new circumstances where these important bits of data and information containing the most personal details about some of our families throughout the United Kingdom will be handled in future by a Crown agency. That is a different situation. I reflect on, acknowledge and agree with the concerns raised by the noble Baroness. However, the amendment would be a step too far for me were it to be voted on in a Division and agreed to.