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Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I am proposing this set of amendments, which I consider to be consequential on the first of them, Amendment 79, to achieve one simple objective: that the power of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission to take away passports is subject to a sunset clause. This means that the arrangements will be brought into line with the way that the Government are proposing to proceed over the power to take away people’s driving licences. It will ensure that a proper report is made on how the arrangements are working in practice which this House can consider and on which it can take a view. The subject was intensively debated in Committee and I will rehearse the arguments in as succinct a form as possible. The power for officials to remove people’s passports has been sought by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission because the sanction has been found to be effective in other countries in persuading non-resident parents to pay up the child maintenance they owe. Great concern about this power has been expressed in the House. In Committee, my noble friend Lord Goodlad informed us that the Constitution Committee had concluded that suspending a person’s right to hold a passport should be the responsibility of judges, not civil servants. I will not repeat all the powerful arguments he made reflecting the views of the Select Committee, except to remind the House that the conclusion was based on a recognition that the right to leave and return to one’s country is recognised as a fundamental right in international law. This Bill represents the second occasion on which such a provision has been included. Just last year, the Government withdrew a similar proposal in the light of these concerns. We on these Benches accept that the proposal is designed to tackle some of the most recalcitrant of non-resident parents and to be used only as a last resort. Our amendment is drawn up in this way to check that such wide powers are properly used. CMEC took over the responsibilities of the Child Support Agency less than a year ago, so we are not looking to invest a tried and tested agency with these powers. The Child Support Agency was widely and officially criticised for inefficiency; the concern is that CMEC will make mistakes and target with these powers an unacceptable number of non-resident parents who do not owe maintenance. In Committee, the Minister tried to justify the different treatment of the powers over driving licences and passports. In his justification for a sunset clause on driving licences, he said: ""Clause 43 is intended to enable the DWP, the commission, the Department for Transport and the police to gauge whether there is any greater risk associated with an administrative as opposed to a court-based power to disqualify a person from driving, as well as evaluating its effectiveness in gaining compliance with child maintenance responsibilities"." Exactly, one would reply. So why do not these arguments apply to passports? He said: ""I do not see a compelling case to justify piloting the travel authorisation passport power. That is because the concern raised by the committee—" the Select Committee on the Constitution— ""primarily about the constitutional appropriateness of the measure, could not be addressed simply by a pilot in any event".—[Official Report, 2/7/09; cols. GC 148-49.]" I imagine this distinction must puzzle the House as much as it puzzles me. Surely the point of a pilot is to find out whether powers work or are subject to abuse. What is the difference? Do we not want to evaluate the effectiveness of the power of passport removal in, ""gaining compliance with child maintenance responsibilities"—" I use the Minister’s phrase exactly again—just as much as we do for driving licences? Is it perhaps because, in the case of driving licences, various government agencies need to get their ducks in a row? Are the administrative concerns of various government agencies more important than the genuine and powerful concerns of this House? No. The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission has not yet earned the right to be taken on trust. Let this House have the opportunity to examine how these powers work in practice. I beg to move.