After section 9 of the Child Support Act 1991 there is inserted—

“9AMaintenance agreements: indicative calculations

(1)

A person with care or non-resident parent in relation to any qualifying child or qualifying children may apply to the F1Secretary of State for an indicative calculation with respect to that child or any of those children.

(2)

A qualifying child who has attained the age of 12 years and is habitually resident in Scotland may apply to the F1Secretary of State for an indicative calculation with respect to himself or herself.

(3)

An indicative calculation is a calculation of the amount of child support maintenance which the F1Secretary of State considers would in accordance with section 11 be fixed by a maintenance calculation if such a calculation were made with respect to the child or children in question.

(4)

An indicative calculation does not create any liability on any person to pay child support maintenance.

(5)

The F2Secretary of State may limit the number of applications F2the Secretary of State will accept under this section in any particular case in such manner as F2the Secretary of State thinks fit.

(6)

Where a person who is alleged to be the parent of a child with respect to whom an application for an indicative calculation has been made denies being one of the child's parents, the F3Secretary of State shall not make the indicative calculation on the assumption that the person is one of the child's parents unless the case falls within paragraph (b) of Case A3 in section 26(2).”