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Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have supported the amendment. We heard some powerful contributions, in particular from the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy of The Shaws, and the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, who has great experience in these matters. Her speech was devastating to the Government’s case in addressing this loophole. I mentioned a loophole which the Minister has not addressed at all. It is the circumstance in which the father contacts the registrar before the mother—the mother perhaps inadvertently having said that he is the father. The father, perhaps an abusive and violent man, then acquires full parental responsibility for the first time. I included in the amendment the safeguard that the mother must have a professional supporting her so that she does not make a malicious declaration. I thought that the amendment produced by the NSPCC was extremely neat. This is a new situation. We cannot say that that has nothing to do with the birth registration, because the Government have made it part of it by putting it in the Bill. I am extremely tempted to test the opinion of the House, but I know this House. As the Minister has suggested a meeting, immediately everyone wants to go to the meeting to put the case, so I know that the momentum will have gone out of the vote. But I ask the Minister whether such a meeting might lead to a government amendment at Third Reading. If it does not, I am still tempted to test the opinion of the House, but if the meeting is genuine with the possibility of an amendment, I will withdraw the amendment. I ask the noble Baroness to intervene to tell me whether there is the possibility of finding an amendment at Third Reading to reflect the debate that has taken place today. The comments made, especially by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, who knows about the matter, should not be ignored.