Civil liberties lawyers have dismissed as ‘disproportionate’ and draconian new powers to confiscate without a court order the driving licences and passports of parents who default on child maintenance.

The Welfare Reform Bill, in the House of Commons committee stage this week, will allow the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, without a court order, to take away the driving licences and passports of parents who refuse to pay for their children.

Justice director Roger Smith described the ‘disproportionate’ sanctions as the thin end of the wedge. ‘They are sure to creep into other areas of dispute once the link between the method of enforcement and what’s at stake is broken. If they are serious about recovering child maintenance, then make it a criminal offence to withhold payment and deal with it as a crime.’ Benjamin Carter, a solicitor at London firm Owen White & Catlin, said the ‘draconian’ new measures would have a ‘seismic effect’.