'It's not working for anybody' – MP Jamie Stone launches parliamentary group on child maintenance services

Jamie Stone says he is looking for "real-life solutions" to the issue of child maintenance services as he launched an All-Party Parliamentary Group.

The Lib Dem MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross held the first meeting of the group this week, with Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem, SNP and Independent members represented.

The group aims to analyse what it calls the failings of child maintenance services, in particular the lack of functionality and enforcement capabilities, and then to present recommendations to the government.

Mr Stone said: "It is long past due that parliament had a cross-party group on child maintenance services. At our first meeting today, we had MPs from the Liberal Democrats, Labour, Conservatives and SNP, which just goes to show the extent to which this issue is much larger than party politics.

"Going forward, I have great hope that we will put our heads together in collaboration to work out real-life solutions to real-life problems which we will then present to the government.

"As one MP said today, child maintenance services are 'not working for anybody'. There may be a lot of work to be done, but today we hit the ground running and I eagerly look forward to our future meetings."

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