Draft Child Support (Management of Payments and arrears and fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2023

Stuart C McDonald Excerpts

Tuesday 16th January 2024 General Committees

[Stuart C. McDonald (Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East) (SNP)]

It is good to see you in the Chair, Mrs Latham. I want to briefly put on record the Scottish National party’s support for these draft regulations, and particularly for the scrapping of the £20 fee, which makes perfect sense. The Minister’s arguments for reprioritising resources, so that we chase not very small amounts of money but larger sums, also make sense, but obviously we need to monitor that very carefully. We would, of course, encourage the Government to go further on issues such as collecting pay fees, the 4% in particular. Some of the arguments that the Minister has used today for scrapping the fee could equally apply to that charge. Like Members from across the Committee Room, we want the overall performance of the service improved, but that is for another day. Perhaps it is for the Backbench Business debate that we hope is coming. In the meantime, we support these regulations.