HC Deb 27 February 1964 vol 690 cc607-9
11. Mr. Montgomery

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has for improving the law relating to the payment of maintenance by husbands who desert their families.

Mr. Woodhouse

The law relating to matrimonial proceedings in magistrates' courts was consolidated, with amendments, in the Matrimonial Proceedings (Magistrates' Courts) Act, 1960. This Act was based on the recommendations of a Departmental Committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Justice Arthian Davies which reported in 1959. My right hon. Friend has no proposals for further amendments of this branch of the law at present.

Mr. Montgomery

Despite his Answer, is my hon. Friend aware that the law still does not seem to work and that there are many of these deserted wives living in Newcastle and there must be many thousands of them in the country generally and that all they seek is the right to maintain themselves and their children? Does not my hon. Friend agree that it is totally wrong that they have to go through this terrible paraphernalia to chase their husbands and obtain their money? I ask my hon. Friend to look at the matter again.

Mr. Woodhouse

This, of course, is a matter at which we are very willing to look, but the only innovation contained in my hon. Friend's Question is that the State should take over this responsibility, and take over the responsibility of extracting the money from defaulting husbands. But the power to extract money from defaulting husbands already lies with the courts and there is no new instrument that we could produce for the purpose.

Miss Bacon

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the difficulty is that the court grants an order but it is afterwards very difficult to trace where a husband has gone? Could not his Department do more to ensure that a husband is found and that he pays his wife?

Mr. Woodhouse

I am sorry to have to tell the hon Lady that our means of obtaining information about the location of missing persons are no greater than those of the courts.

Mrs. Slater

That does not satisfy the situation. Does the hon. Gentleman not realise that because of the present situation many of these women are forced on to National Assistance very much against their will, the husband goes scot-free and the State has to look after the women? It is absolutely impossible in some cases for these women to have the resources to go about chasing their husbands. Will not the hon. Gentleman therefore look at the situation again?

Mr. Woodhouse

The hon. Lady is qiute right in saying that in such circumstances the State has to look after the matter. This is precisely what the suggestion in my hon. Friend's Question amounted to. [HON. MEMBERS: "No."] The problem is to extract the money from the defaulting husband. If in the last resort a man is prepared to go to prison for several weeks, which is the present law, there is no power to extract the money from him.

Mr. Montgomery

In view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I beg to give notice that I shall raise the matter on the Adjournment at the earliest opportunity.