The applicant contended that the 1991 Act infringed her human rights in denying her access to court to obtain maintenance for her children.
Held: The applicant had no substantive right to take part in the enforcement process in domestic law which is capable in Convention law of engaging the guarantees in it. ‘Sympathetic though one must be with Mrs Kehoe, who appears to have suffered extreme frustration and a measure of loss, one cannot in my opinion ignore the wider principle raised by this case. This is that the deliberate decisions of representative assemblies should be respected and given effect so long as they do not infringe rights guaranteed by the Convention. As they have made clear, it is not for the Strasbourg institutions, under the guise of applying the procedural guarantees in article 6, to impose legislative models on member states. Whether the scheme established by the 1991 Act is on balance beneficial to those whom it is intended to benefit may well be open to question, but it is a question for Parliament to resolve and not for the courts, since I do not consider that any article 6 right of Mrs Kehoe is engaged.’
Baroness Hale Of Richmond, dissenting: ‘ . . . children have a civil right to be maintained by their parents which is such as to engage article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Their rights are not limited to the rights given to the parent with care under the Child Support Act. The provisions of that Act are simply a means of quantifying and enforcing part of their rights.’ and ‘the system is trying to do. It is trying to enforce the children’s rights. It is sometimes, as this case shows, lamentably inefficient in so doing. It is safe to assume that there are cases, of which this may be one, where the children’s carer would be much more efficient in enforcing the children’s rights. The children’s carer has a direct and personal interest in enforcement which the Agency, however good its intentions, does not. Even in benefit cases, where the state does have a direct interest in enforcement, it is not the sort of interest which stems from needing enough money to feed, clothe and house the children on a day to day basis. Only a parent who is worrying about where the money is to be found for the school dinners, the school trips, the school uniform, sports gear or musical instruments, or to visit the ‘absent’ parent, not only this week but the next and the next for many years to come, has that sort of interest. A promise that the Agency is doing its best is not enough. Nor is the threat or reality of judicial review.’
Lord Bingham Of Cornhill, Lord Hope Of Craighead, Lord Walker Of Gestingthorpe, Baroness Hale Of Richmond, Lord Brown Of Eaton-Under-Heywood
[2006] AC 42, [2005] UKHL 48, Times 15-Jul-2005, [2005] 3 WLR 252
House of Lords, Bailii
Child Support Act 1991
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v Kehoe CA 5-Mar-2004
The claimant had applied to the Child Support Agncy for maintenance. They failed utterly to obtain payment, and she complained now that she was denied the opportunity by the 1991 Act to take court proceedings herself.
Held: The denial of . .
At first instance – Regina (Kehoe) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions QBD 16-May-2003
The applicant had been obliged under statute to have her claim for maintenance for her child pursued thorugh the Child Support Agency. She said that through the delay and otherwise, her claim had been lost.
Held: The statute debarred the . .
Cited – Golder v The United Kingdom ECHR 21-Feb-1975
G was a prisoner who was refused permission by the Home Secretary to consult a solicitor with a view to bringing libel proceedings against a prison officer. The court construed article 6 of ECHR, which provides that ‘in the determination of his . .
Cited – Matthews v Ministry of Defence HL 13-Feb-2003
The claimant sought damages against the Crown, having suffered asbestosis whilst in the armed forces. He challenged the denial to him of a right of action by the 1947 Act.
Held: Human rights law did not create civil rights, but rather voided . .
Cited – James and Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 21-Feb-1986
The claimants challenged the 1967 Act, saying that it deprived them of their property rights when lessees were given the power to purchase the freehold reversion.
Held: Article 1 (P1-1) in substance guarantees the right of property. Allowing a . .
Cited – Z And Others v The United Kingdom ECHR 10-May-2001
Four children complained that, for years before they were taken into care by the local authority, its social services department was well aware that they were living in filthy conditions and suffering ‘appalling’ neglect in the home of their . .
Cited – Huxley v Child Support Agency CA 2000
The court gave an extensive analysis of the workings of the Child Support Act: (Lady Justice Hale) ‘It is important to bear in mind that the child support scheme is not simply a method for the State to recoup part of its benefit expenditure from the . .
Cited – H v Belgium ECHR 30-Nov-1987
Hudoc Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Violation of Art. 6-1; Pecuniary damage – claim rejected; Non-pecuniary damage – financial award; Costs and expenses award – Convention proceedings
It is for . .
Cited – Department of Social Security v Butler CA 11-Aug-1995
The Secretary of State was not entitled to a Mareva injunction preventing the disposal of assets against a parent pending the issue of a child support assessment. The court refused a freezing order:- (Morritt LJ) ‘The Child Support Act introduced a . .
Cited – Pinder v United Kingdom ECHR 1984
(Commission) ‘The Commission . . recalls that the concept of ‘civil rights’ is autonomous. Thus, irrespective of whether a right is in domestic law labelled ‘public’, ‘private’, ‘civil’ or something else, it is ultimately for the Convention organs . .
Cited – Govier v Hancock 1796
A wife’s agency of necessity subsisted only if the wife was justified in living apart from her husband. She would lose it for ever if she was guilty of adultery, no matter how badly her husband had behaved. . .
Cited – Rex v Friend 1802
Where a mother had proper custody of a child, an agency of necessity extended to her purchase of necessaries for the child as well as for herself. . .
Cited – Hesketh v Gowing 1804
Where a father placed his children in the care of a nurse or servant, he might have financial responsibility for necessaries bought for the child. . .
Cited – Runa Begum v London Borough of Tower Hamlets (First Secretary of State intervening) HL 13-Feb-2003
The appellant challenged the procedure for reviewing a decision made as to the suitability of accomodation offered to her after the respondent had accepted her as being homeless. The procedure involved a review by an officer of the council, with an . .
Cited – V v V (Ancillary relief: Power to order child maintenance) FD 6-Jun-2001
The parties had sought a child maintenance order form the court, but the husband resiled from his agreement.
Held: Where the court was unexpectedly blocked in this way, it had a power to make an order for payment by way of a lump sum of the . .
Cited – Regina (Holding and Barnes plc) v Secretary of State for Environment Transport and the Regions; Regina (Alconbury Developments Ltd and Others) v Same and Others HL 9-May-2001
Power to call in is administrative in nature
The powers of the Secretary of State to call in a planning application for his decision, and certain other planning powers, were essentially an administrative power, and not a judicial one, and therefore it was not a breach of the applicants’ rights . .
Cited – Jones v Newtown and Llanidloes Guardians 1920
A wife’s agency of necessity of her husband is suspended whilst she is in desertion. . .
Cited – McGowan v McGowan 1948
Just as a husband’s common law duty to maintain his wife would normally be discharged by providing the home which they shared, the father’s duty to maintain his children would be discharged by providing them with a home. . .
Cited – Delaney v Delaney CA 22-May-1990
The court made an order for nominal periodical payments for children whose mother was receiving social security benefits. Nourse LJ said: ‘Whilst this court deprecates any notion that a former husband and extant father may slough off the tight skin . .
Cited – Ashingdane v The United Kingdom ECHR 28-May-1985
The right of access to the courts is not absolute but may be subject to limitations. These are permitted by implication since the right of access ‘by its very nature calls for regulation by the State, regulation which may vary in time and place . .
Cited – Lilley v Lilley 1960
A wife’s agency of necessity of her husband was not lost if they were obliged to live apart for no fault of hers. . .
Cited – Barnes v Barnes CA 28-Jul-1972
. .
Cited by:
Cited – Secretary of State for Work and Pensions v M HL 8-Mar-2006
The respondent’s child lived with the estranged father for most of each week. She was obliged to contribute child support. She now lived with a woman, and complained that because her relationship was homosexual, she had been asked to pay more than . .
Cited – Smith v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Another HL 12-Jul-2006
The House considered whether under the 1992 Regulations a self-employed parent could use for his child support calculation his net earnings as declared to the Revenue, which would allow deduction of capital and other allowances properly claimed . .
Cited – Rowley and others v Secretary of State for Department of Work and Pensions CA 19-Jun-2007
The claimants sought damages for alleged negligence of the defendant in the administration of the Child Support system.
Held: The defendant in administering the statutory system owed no direct duty of care to those affected: ‘a common law duty . .
Cited – Regina v G (Secretary of State for the Home Department intervening) HL 18-Jun-2008
The defendant was fifteen. He was convicted of statutory rape of a 13 year old girl, believing her to be 15. He appealed saying that as an offence of strict liability he had been denied a right to a fair trial, and also that the offence charged was . .
Cited – Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission v Beesley and Another ChD 11-Mar-2010
The agency challenged the inclusion in an individual voluntary arrangement of the father’s arrears of child support. The creditors meeting had approved a full and final settlement. 94% of the debts were arrears of child support. The Commission said . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights, Child Support
Leading Case
Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.228601
