In this Schedule—

• “Central Authority” means—

  1. a

     in relation to England and Wales, the Lord Chancellor;

  2. b

     in relation to Scotland, the Scottish Ministers; and

  3. c

     in relation to Northern Ireland, the Department of Justice,

  and references to “Central Authority” include persons employed by or supplying services to that Central Authority;

• “deposit-taker” means any person who may, in the course of their business, lawfully accept deposits in the United Kingdom;

• “maintenance obligation” means any maintenance obligation to which the Convention (as applied by the United Kingdom) applies, and includes maintenance arrangements as defined in Article 3(e);

• “requesting Central Authority” means the Central Authority of another Contracting State to the Convention which has made the request for information or sent the application under Article 10, or the specific measures request under Article 7;

• “Revenue and Customs officials” has the meaning given by section 18 of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 M1;

• “functions relating to social security” includes functions relating to statutory payments as defined in section 4C(11) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 M2 and maternity allowance under section 35 of that Act.

In this Schedule any reference to a numbered Article or Chapter is to the Article or Chapter so numbered in the Convention and any reference to a sub-division of a numbered Article shall be construed accordingly.