Child Support Act

EDM number 1253 in 1994-95, proposed by Liz Lynne on 14/06/1995.

That this House, while firmly supporting the principle that parents should honour their obligations to their children, no longer believes that the best interests of children are served by the Child Support Act 1991; believes that the Act is damaging to the creation of new and viable family units, is fundamentally unfair in its operation through the Child Support Agency which is moreover less efficient at collection of maintenance that the Liable Relatives Unit that it replaced; notes that the Child Support Act has, for these and other reasons, lost the confidence of the country; and therefore calls on the Government to repeal the Act, return on a temporary basis to the previous court system for the settlement of maintenance issues, revive the Liable Relatives Unit and then consult widely on the best way to implement a comprehensive unified family court system which will allow genuine consistency across all matters of family policy, flexibility and fairness into maintenance assessment and foster co-operation between the parties to the benefit of all concerned.

This motion has been signed by a total of 45 MPs.