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Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill

My Lords, I will certainly withdraw my amendment but I do have to say to the noble Lord that I reserve the right to come back to this issue at the next stage of the Bill. Despite his conciliatory words, I am still extremely disturbed by the evidence that has been put to me, although I accept that it is not a vast body of evidence as the noble Lord said. I ask that the Minister takes up the suggestion of the noble Lord, Lord Kirkwood, but, please, do not confine the investigation to Scotland. This Bill covers England as well and the Law Society in England is just as reputable a body as the Law Society in Scotland. The noble Lord, in his objection to the case that I elucidated about the mother, left out a germane series of facts in his refutation of it. The reason the husband is no longer sticking to the agreement is, as I said, that the wife has now met someone else and the ex-husband fails to see why he should be contributing to the household pot. This would not happen under CMEC because he would be forced to continue to contribute to the pot. Of course, it is optional whether the wife, or the former wife, goes to CMEC. Because of the horror stories that she has heard about the CSA, the length of time it takes to operate, its success rate and all the rest of it—which I accept, with the improvement plan, is indeed improving—CMEC should—