36.—(1) Regulation 30 of the Maintenance Assessment Procedure Regulations (effective dates of new assessments) shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.
(2) In paragraph (1) for the words “and (7)” there shall be substituted the words “ , (7) and (8) ”.
(3) For paragraph (2) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—
“(2) Where no maintenance assessment made in accordance with Part I of Schedule 1 to the Act is in force with respect to the person with care and absent parent, the effective date of a new assessment shall be—
(a)in a case where the application for a maintenance assessment is made by a person with care or by a child under section 7 of the Act—
(i)eight weeks fro the date on which a maintenance enquiry form has been given or sent to an absent parent, where such date is on or after 18th April 1995 and where within four weeks of the date that form was given or sent, it has been returned by the absent parent to the Secretary of State and it contains his name, address and written confirmation that he is the parent of the child or children in respect of whom the application for a maintenance assessment was made;
(ii)in all other circumstances, the date a maintenance enquiry form is given or sent to an absent parent;
(b)in a case where the application for a maintenance assessment is made by an absent parent—
(i)eight weeks from the date on which an application made by an absent parent was received by the Secretary of State, where such date is on or after 18 April 1995 and where, on, or within four weeks of, the date of receipt of that maintenance application, the absent parent has provided his name, address and written confirmation that he is the parent of the child or children in respect of whom the application was made;
(ii)in all other circumstances, the date an effective maintenance application form is received by the Secretary of State.”.
(4) After paragraph (2), there shall be inserted the following paragraph—
“(2A) Where a child support officer is satisfied that there was unavoidable delay by the absent parent in providing the information listed in sub-paragraphs (a)(i) or (b)(i) of paragraph (2) within the time specified in those sub-paragraphs, he may apply the provisions of those sub-paragraphs for the purpose of setting the effective date of a maintenance assessment even though that information was not provided within the time specified in those sub-paragraphs.”.