Clause 8 - Commencement, short title and extent
Children's Commissioner for Wales Bill
12:15 pm
Mr Robert Walter (North Dorset, Conservative)
I hear what the Minister says, and I am grateful for the support of other hon. Members. I suspect, however, that this may be an academic discussion because, as we saw with the Government of Wales Act 1998, giving titles to posts in the Welsh Assembly does not seem to mean that those who hold them are in any way limited to using those titles. They seem to be able to make up their own titles as they go along. The First Secretary has become the First Minister, and the other Secretaries also call themselves Ministers.
To turn to the more serious point—that is not to say that renaming posts in the Welsh Assembly is not serious—although my own children are well beyond being teenagers, I still refer to them as children, despite the fact that they are in their 20s. None the less, I am sure that they would have been exceedingly upset if public bodies had referred to them as children, even when they were 16, 17 or 18 years old and entering higher education. As my hon. Friend the Member for Faversham and Mid-Kent said, some anomalies are involved in that people may marry at 16 but cannot drink until they are 18, and there are various other things that they cannot do until they are 21. None the less, not necessarily during the passage of the Bill but as the Children's Commissioner starts work, we shall revisit the question of whether it would be more appropriate to call him the Children's and Youth Commissioner for Wales. In the light of what has been said, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 8 ordered to stand part of the Bill.