Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what enforcement powers are exercised by the Child Maintenance Service pending the commencement of the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023.

The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to ensuring separated parents support their children financially, taking robust enforcement action against those who do not.

When a paying parent does not make maintenance payments on time or in full, the CMS will initially negotiate a payment that is feasible for the parent to pay. If this is unsuccessful and the paying parent is employed, the CMS will request that ongoing child maintenance payments be deducted directly from their salary by issuing what we call a Deductions from Earnings Order (DEO). The CMS also has powers to deduct maintenance from a wide range of bank accounts including joint and business accounts.

If this is unsuccessful, the CMS will use further measures, including using Enforcement Agents to take control of goods, disqualification from driving or commitment to prison, and disqualification from holding or obtaining a UK passport.

We continually assess the effectiveness of our enforcement action and in the year to September 2025, the CMS collected £214m through administrative and court-based enforcement actions (including deductions from earnings). This is the highest annual amount collected through enforcement since the CMS began in 2012, and represents a 21% increase compared with the year to September 2024.

Following the Child Support (Enforcement) Act 2023 receiving royal assent in July 2023, secondary legislation is required to bring into force existing powers that allow the CMS to make an administrative liability order against a person who has failed to pay child maintenance and is in arrears. A liability order is a legal recognition of the debt and is required before the CMS can take certain enforcement actions against non-compliant parents to enforce those arrears.

The administrative liability order (ALO) will replace the current requirement for the CMS to apply to the court for a liability order, a cumbersome process which can take a long time (in some cases up to 22 weeks). Introducing a simpler administrative process will enable the CMS to take faster action against those paying parents who actively avoid their responsibilities and will get money to children more quickly.

We expect the new liability order process in the majority of cases to take around 6 weeks. Changes will mean the CMS can use its strong enforcement powers more quickly to go after those who will fully avoid their financial obligations to their children.

We are working with His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and the Scottish Government to establish a process for implementing ALOs and plan to introduce regulations to Parliament as soon as possible.