Part 4: Enforcement of Judgments and Orders Schedule 15: Attachment of earnings orders: deductions at fixed rates Section 97: Departmental information requests
436.This section specifies the information that may be requested by the court from government departments. Subsection (3) specifies information that may be requested from “the designated Secretary of State” (the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions will be designated for this purpose) and subsection (4) specifies the information that may be requested from HMRC. Subsection (5) enables the court to request prescribed information from other government departments. Such government departments will be requested rather than ordered to provide information and non-legislative agreements will set out arrangements for the respective government departments to deal with such requests.