COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 22 July 1991)

§ The Lord Chancellor

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 44 and to speak to Amendments Nos. 47 to 49 at the same time.

We debated the reviews and appeals provisions at some length during the passage of the Bill through this House and we listened carefully to what your Lordships said. I am particularly grateful to the noble Earl, Lord Russell, who put down at Report stage two amendments to the internal review clause. The noble Lord, Lord Henley, wrote to the noble Earl about our proposed changes and these amendments are the result.

We concluded that there should be a simpler access to a review and that the onus for considering the grounds for review should rest with the child support officer. Amendment No. 44 removes the requirement for applicants for a Clause 17 review to have to state which of a specific list of grounds for review applies to their request. Instead, they will merely have to state in writing their reasons for requesting a review. That is the internal, first stage review, to ensure that matters are correct.

This amendment also removes the 28-day time limit from the face of the Bill, but we intend to cover this aspect in regulations along with the effective dates of any revised assessment or decision as a result of the review.

Where there has been a clearly frivolous appeal, the child support officer may refuse to review. This will not affect the applicant's appeal rights, as in Amendments Nos. 47 and 48 we clarify the intention that there should be a right of appeal against the child support officer's refusal to review.

529 Amendment No. 49 removes the need to appeal on one of three specific grounds and therefore allows appeals to the child support appeal tribunal on any grounds. This brings the appeal provisions in line with that proposed for the Clause 17 review in Amendment No. 44. I commend the amendment to your Lordships.