Children and Adoption Bill [Lords]

With new clause 12, we are seeking to amend the welfare checklist in the Children Act 1989. The Minister described it as a novel and possibly good way of tackling the problem, but then completely wrote off our approach to amending the checklist by saying that adding"““the desirability of reasonable contact between the child and the non-resident parent in the absence of good reason to the contrary””" was completely out of kilter with everything else already in the checklist. It is not, because it is not a requirement or a direction, but a ““have regard to”” the ““desirability of”” something—that is how it is worded. For some reason, the Minister will not accept it, and I am afraid that that attitude has pervaded all our debates and deliberations on adding the principle of reasonable contact to various parts of the Bill. For that reason, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and because we have spent so much time and effort, and because so many people in the country place such great store on amending the Bill to make it meaningful, practical and workable, we have to press these essential new clauses, which go to the heart of our approach to the Bill, to the vote. Without them, the Bill will not be workable, it will lack guts and it will turn out to be a dud. On that basis, I urge my hon. Friends and all hon. Members who signed the early-day motion over the last few months to join us in the Lobby to make the Bill workable, so that it actually achieves the aims that the Government say that they want it to achieve. Question put, That the clause be read a Second time:— The House divided: Ayes 146, Noes 324.