I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. The objects of the Bill are to make certain amendments of the law relating to instalment orders, maintenance orders, and affiliation orders, and to provide for the release in proper cases of persons imprisoned for non-payment of debt. An explanatory memorandum has been circulated with the Bill, and perhaps all I need do at this stage is to refer to what I think are the three principal defects in the existing law which the Bill is intended to remedy. The first is that under the existing law arrears of weekly sums due under maintenance orders and affiliation orders have to be sued for in the same way as ordinary civil debts. This is an expensive and cumbersome procedure, and I understand that women who obtain maintenance orders and affiliation orders often make no attempt to enforce them when they discover the difficulties involved. As will be seen, in the Bill we are providing that a person against whom an instalment has been made can be brought up for examination. If a satisfactory explanation is not given, he may be committed to prison for three months. If he can show that he is not in a position to pay the instalment, it can be varied. The court will decide that question.
The second defect in the present law is that when a man is imprisoned under Section 18 of the Enforcement of Court Orders Act, 1926, for failure to pay an instalment of a debt, he cannot be released before the expiry of the period for which he is committed unless he pays the whole debt. Payment of the instalment in respect of which he is committed is not sufficient. I think that that is not right. We want to remedy the law there so as to provide that if the person pays the instalment of the debt that has accrued due, he may be released. There is no power to do that at present.
