My Lords, I again thank the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, for raising a very important issue, the whole area of child maintenance. We recognise that it has a significant impact for many families in the UK and in the other EU member states. The reciprocal enforcement of maintenance decisions has a long history. Establishing procedures to enable decisions made in one country to be enforced in another helps to ensure that children receive appropriate financial support after the parents have separated and when one parent is living in another country. The noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, interestingly observed that even with the structures, there are still challenges. We all have to be cognisant of that.
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All EU member states are party to the EU maintenance regulation and, with the exception of Denmark, the 2007 Hague maintenance convention. The noble Baroness, Lady Deech, raised a question about that. I can confirm to her that the Government have identified the UK’s continued participation in the 2007 Hague maintenance convention as an important issue for discussion with the EU in the upcoming negotiations. The sensible next step is for us to work with the EU and our other international partners to agree that the UK will continue to participate in this convention.
As the Government outlined in their position paper published in August last year, we are committed to continuing civil judicial co-operation with the EU once we leave the EU, including in the sphere of child maintenance, because this is in the interests of both UK and EU citizens and families. However, this amendment presents an unnecessary burden to the Government at this stage in the process of our exit.
The report specified by the amendment requires the Government to publish details of future co-operation with the EU on child maintenance claims and how these will replicate mechanisms which exist within the EU, as well as enabling data sharing in relation to such matters, all within one month of the Bill receiving Royal Assent and subsequently every year thereafter. This is rather an arbitrary deadline. I realise that the noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, may have a good reason for picking a deadline, but it makes no reference to the position of the negotiations at that stage or to the other documents the Government will publish on the subject. These documents include not only any final agreement reached in negotiations but any Explanatory Notes on any amendments that Ministers may make to retained EU law under the Bill, including retained law relating to child maintenance. I am sure the noble Baroness is also aware that any agreement between the UK and the EU will be detailed clearly within the withdrawal agreement and domestically legislated for within the upcoming withdrawal agreement and implementation period Bill, which Parliament will be able to fully scrutinise and vote on.
The Government have made clear that civil judicial co-operation in respect of child maintenance should be part of our future relationship with the EU. However,
I hope that the noble Baroness will indulge me when I say that the precise nature of this relationship is a matter for negotiation. To require a report of the nature suggested in the amendment would divert resources from these important negotiations and would bear no relation to their progress or timelines. Again, the noble Baroness has done the Chamber a service by bringing on to the radar screen an extremely important issue, which the Government are acutely aware of and which is encompassed within the negotiations. However, in these circumstances I ask her to withdraw her amendment.