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Welfare Reform Bill

I am grateful to the Minister for his full reply. He told us that it is not a matter of punishment, but of encouraging the relevant parent to pay up. Taking away people’s right to travel abroad and to drive will inevitably be seen by them and the community at large as very much a punishment for their conduct. The difficulty with arguing that such measures are appropriate so long as there are sufficient safeguards—in the sense that decisions are taken by officials of an appropriately senior level, are taken only by reference to appropriate criteria, such as wilful misconduct, and only when they think it appropriate—is that exactly the same argument could be applied to any other sanction or order that Ministers think it appropriate to confer on an administrative body; for example, a curfew order or something of the sort. Why not allow administrative bodies to impose those orders? This Government are taking us down a very slippery slope in arguing that, for reasons essentially of convenience, it should be appropriate to confer on an administrative body the right to impose what will be regarded by citizens as very painful sanctions. I have heard nothing today—