HL Deb 10 July 1984 vol 454 cc823-4

6 After Clause 9, insert the following new Clause—

("Variation of consent orders by magistrates' courts.

For section 20(2) of the Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates' Courts Act 1978 (under which the court can vary a consent order by ordering the payment of a lump sum if the consent order provided for the payment of a lump sum) there shall be substituted the following subsection—

"(2) Where a magistrates' court has made an order under section 6 of this Act for the making of periodical payments by a party to a marriage the court shall have power, on an application made under this section, to vary or revoke that order and also to make an order for the payment of a lump sum by that party either—

  1. (a) to the other party to the marriage, or
  2. (b)to a child of the family or to that other party for the benefit of that child." ").

The Lord Chancellor

My Lords, I beg to move that this House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 6. Amendment No. 6 which stands alone is a new clause and amends Section 20 of the Domestic Proceedings and Magistrates' Courts Act 1978 so as to remove the present restriction on magistrates' courts' powers in relation to consent orders which confines the making of a lump sum order in variation proceedings only to those cases where an order for such a sum was made in the original proceedings.

The amendment removes this restriction so that the court has discretion to award a lump sum on an application to vary any consent order if it would be appropriate to do so. This brings the courts' power to deal with consent orders in variation proceedings into line with their powers to vary orders made in contested cases when there is no restriction on ordering a lump sum payment according to whether or not one was ordered in the original proceedings. The court will therefore be able better to dispose of a variation application by making the orders most fitting to the case before it in the light of its duty to have regard for all the circumstances of the case. I beg to move that the House doth agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 6.

Moved, That this House doth agree with the Commons in the said amendment.—(The Lord Chancellor.]

Lord Mishcon

My Lords, if I may be forgiven for exercising an old hobbyhorse, in the course of this Bill I ventured very humbly—and there were those who agreed with me—to wish that magistrates' courts disappeared from family jurisdiction and that there were in fact only family courts united in their wisdom and dealing purely and simply with family matters. But if magistrates' courts are to remain and they have jurisdiction in matrimonial cases, it is only right that they should have the power, so lucidly explained by the noble and learned Lord, in this Commons amendment.

The Lord Chancellor

My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord for what he said. I am far from differing with him, but there are others who would have differed. It is rather a dark sea of controversy on which one would embark if one introduced that into this Bill.

On Question, Motion agreed to.