"Deadbeat parents" will be stopped from licensing their motor vehicles until they pay outstanding child support under new legislation to be tabled this autumn.

And Attorney General Kim Wilson wants to introduce child support enforcement officers with investigative powers to hunt down absent fathers and mothers who fail to keep up maintenance payments.

Senator Wilson told The Royal Gazette yesterday that Cabinet had already approved her plan to link motor vehicle licensing with child support and that she was in the process of drafting the legislation.

If approved by Parliament, the law would mean staff at the Transport Control Department (TCD) would be alerted if a parent in arrears tried to licence their vehicle.

Sen. Wilson said: "How frustrating for a mother that's trying to claim child support to come out of court and see the father of the child driving a sporty car and they can't find money for food or clothing.

"We will be tying it to the licence because once a year you are going to visit TCD.

"At that time, you are going to have to pay the outstanding arrears and satisfy the court order [for child support] or not get a licence.

"If you drive without a licence, it's a $1,000 fine and all else that comes with that."

A report released earlier this year by the Family Law Reform Subcommittee recommended courts be given the power to withhold travel documents from parents owing child support.

The committee also suggested:

• issuing writs of possession to remove people in maintenance arrears from their homes;

• empowering courts to force banks to release funds from clients' accounts if they owe child support;

• coupling jail time with a mandatory work programme; and

• putting those who owe more than $2,000 into work programmes with earnings going directly to the child's caregiver.

Sen. Wilson said she met with Puisne Judge Norma Wade-Miller, the subcommittee chairman, to discuss the proposals and advised that some were unlikely to become law.

But the Justice Minister has taken up a recommendation to give more powers to bailiffs to find "deadbeat parents" and said it would go before Cabinet "very, very soon".

"The bailiffs... have the lawful responsibility of serving the court proceedings necessary for enforcement of the payments," said Sen. Wilson.

"One of the largest problems affecting this is the lack of personal information such as addresses and the like to assist in the service of court proceedings.

"Many women are frustrated because they know the father is on the Island but cannot be located very easily. This also frustrates the bailiffs as they want to assist and serve the documents but without the particulars as to address etc. their job is almost impossible.

"Unfortunately the bailiffs are not private investigators charged with locating people and/or their assets. They simply serve court documents.

"One possible solution which I am looking into is hiring child support enforcement officers who will have the 'investigative' powers within their remit to find these delinquent parents. Some jurisdictions call this skip tracing.

"I am confident this will prove a highly effective way of locating these parents and therefore put the mothers and children in a position to collect the monies owed to them, which is oftentimes needed for the child's support."

The AG said the beefed-up powers for bailiffs and the motor licence plan were "two initiatives being developed which should greatly assist the quality of life for families who may be struggling with outstanding child support arrears".

Shadow Public Safety Minister Michael Dunkley — who has spoken out repeatedly against jailing parents for failing to pay child support — said he welcomed any fresh look at the problem but wanted to see more done. "What if you don't drive a car?" he said. "That will only catch some. With the bailiffs, I don't know how much impact that's going to have.

"The current system requires that once the courts notify a business then they have to start deducting child support [from an employee's wages]. Why don't we make a register, where employers can call and ask the courts 'does so-and-so pay child support?'?"

Edward Tavares, co-founder of ChildWatch, which campaigns for fairness in family law, said Government ought not to just concentrate on money.

"What concerns us mainly is that they want to address the issue of money payments but they won't address the issue of access. They don't look at the whole picture."

Mr. Tavares said family court judges needed to appreciate that household expenses were doubled when a couple split up. "A few years back, one father was only left with $7 a week for himself."

And he said studies had shown that parents given proper access to their children were far more likely to meet or exceed maintenance payments.