A report from the Social Security Select Committee praises proposed reforms to speed up decisions on child maintenance by the Child Support Agency (CSA).

But it expresses concerns over suggested punitive measures to deal with the problem of persistent non-payers.

When it issued its White Paper on CSA reform in July, the government floated plans to make non-payment a jailable offence.

It also suggested other sanctions including removing driving licences and seizing the assets of absent parents who failed to comply.

The committee said: "We support the introduction of severe penalties for those who deliberately persist in fraudulent evasion of their responsibilities to their children, but we recommend that the interests of the children should be fully taken into account before action is taken to seek the imprisonment of a delinquent parent."

When he announced the reforms in the House of Commons, Social Security Secretary Alistair Darling said one million children would benefit from them and that they were aimed at "putting children first".

Under the plans, which are backed by a £28m investment over the next three years, failure to pay maintenance on a persistent basis and giving false information to the CSA will be a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to £1,000 or a jail term.

Under 16s

The select committee also opposed suggestions that fathers under 16 should be chased for maintenance payments to discourage underage sex.

It said this would be "an unacceptable diversion of resources".

But MPs praised moves to simplify the CSA system of determining maintenance levels, which has been much criticised in the past and has led to a huge backlog and claims of unfairness by some absent parents.

However, the committeeof cross-party MPs said the new system should be introduced as soon as possible after a computer system designed to cope with it was up and running.