§ Mr. RookerI beg to move amendment No. 36, in page 8, line 23, leave out from "11," to end of line 26 and insert—
'and except in prescribed circumstances any appeal connected with it (under section 20) shall lapse.'.I shall be brief, and I hope that the House accepts that. Amendment 36 relates to applications for a variation from the normal rules by which child support maintenance will be calculated. It amends the wording of sub-section (5) of section 28F.
Where a variation application is made before a final decision has been reached on the original maintenance application, the Secretary of State will, whenever possible, take the outcome of the variation application into account in reaching his decision on the maintenance application. Where, for whatever reason, he cannot immediately resolve the variation application, he will make an interim maintenance decision under section 12(2).
The amendment provides that, once the final decision has been made, any appeal against such an interim decision will normally lapse. That serves to simplify an otherwise quite complex and ludicrous process, under which an appeal would have proceeded against a decision that had subsequently been replaced.
I commend the amendment to the House.
§ Amendment agreed to.