HL Deb 22 July 1991 vol 531 cc540-2

82 After Clause 39, insert the following new clause:

Jurisdiction

'.—(1) A child support officer shall have jurisdiction to make a maintenance assessment with respect to a person who is—

  1. (a) a person with care;
  2. (b) an absent parent; or
  3. (c) a qualifying child,
only if that person is habitually resident in the United Kingdom.

(2) Where the person with care is not an individual, subsection (1) shall have effect as if paragraph (a) were omitted.

(3) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision for the cancellation of any maintenance assessment where—

  1. (a) the person with care, absent parent or qualifying child with respect to whom it was made ceases to be habitually resident in the United Kingdom;
  2. (b) in a case falling within subsection (2), the absent parent or qualifying child with respect to whom it was made ceases to be habitually resident in the United Kingdom; or
  3. (c) in such circumstances as may be prescribed, a maintenance order of a prescribed kind is made with respect to any qualifying child with respect to whom the maintenance assessment was made.'.

The Lord Chancellor

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 82.

This new clause provides for the territorial jurisdiction for the child support agency. Your Lordships will see that, for the agency to have jurisdiction to make a maintenance assessment, it will be necessary for all the parties to a maintenance application to be "habitually resident" in the United Kingdom. That should provide an easily understood and simple test. Habitual residence is a test that is already recognised within existing family law legislation.

Where one of the parties is regarded as habitually resident outside the United Kingdom, the agency will not have jurisdiction to make an assessment. Such cases will be, as now, for the courts to decide as the particular circumstances can be complex and the courts, using their discretionary powers, are better placed to deal with them. I commend the new clause to the House.

Moved, That the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 82.—(The Lord Chancellor.)

Lord Renton

My Lords, this is useful clarification, but we should bear in mind that increasingly in the years to come—it has already started—people who are citizens of this country and Her Majesty's subjects of this country will go to live in the EC. Some people already have holiday homes in the EC and spend a good deal of their time there. If, for example, the absent parent, who is the person who should perhaps be made responsible, is in that position, it appears that the child support agency will have no jurisdiction. It may be that it is too soon for us to start legislating for circumstances of that kind, but they are circumstances on which we should invite my noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor to comment, if he feels in a position to do so, before the Bill leaves the House.

Baroness Elles

My Lords, I support my noble and learned friend the Lord Chancellor. I should like to ask him a question similar to that asked by my noble friend Lord Renton. I am not sure of the meaning of the phrase, or qualifying child". If a child of 17 or 18 is studying at a university on the continent, would the parent qualify as being habitually resident in the United Kingdom even though the qualifying child was no longer resident in this country but was a student on the continent or anywhere else for that matter?

The Lord Chancellor

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Elles raised the question of whether a student studying abroad would necessarily be classed as habitually resident abroad. The mere fact that one is studying abroad for a period would not necessarily make that person habitually resident abroad. However, if the child in respect of whom maintenance is sought is habitually resident abroad, that would not apply. In other words, the agency would have no jurisdiction to make an assessment. The matter would then arise in the courts which would have the power to make the assessment in that case. If they made an order, they would have the benefit of the reciprocal arrangements within the EC which have recently been set up. From the point of view of convenience and effective administration, this is the right way to go about the matter. The agency should work only if all parties are habitually resident within the United Kingdom. Otherwise, the courts should deal with the matter.

On Question, Motion agreed to.

7.30 p.m.