New Clause 3 - Right of Commissioner to comment on court decisions
Children's Commissioner for Wales Bill
4:30 pm
Mr Win Griffiths (Bridgend, Labour)
I am delighted to welcome you back to the Chair, Mr. Wells.
When the Committee adjourned, I was in full flow and about to deal with the commissioner's ability to initiate inquiries into matters of public concern, which, without the new clause, might be restricted. If, for example, the Secretary of State for Health had not decided to initiate an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Anna Climbie's tragic death, and if that death had occurred in Wales and the National Assembly had decided not to initiate an inquiry, under current legislation would the Children's Commissioner have been able to initiate an inquiry of his own, despite the case having already been subject to legal proceedings? I ask the Minister to reflect upon that, or whether section 77 of the Care Standards Act would apply in such a case.
A more diffuse issue relating to the commissioner's ability to inquire into matters where there may be related or other legal proceedings is exemplified by the inquiry into alleged child abuse in north Wales. In similar circumstances, would there be restrictions upon the commissioner's ability to inquire into all aspects of alleged abuse if one or more of the alleged abusers were subject to legal proceedings, of if they had been convicted of abuse within the scope of an inquiry, such as the Waterhouse inquiry?
The first recommendation of the Waterhouse inquiry was the appointment of a children's commissioner to act swiftly in dealing with allegations of child abuse. Would the Care Standards Act prevent the commissioner from making such inquiries on behalf of children if legal proceedings were under way connected with at least some of the people involved in the allegations of child abuse?
I have made inquiries with the Library. It is standard practice that ombudsmen cannot make inquiries in a large number of areas where options are already available for people to obtain redress. However, looking at the English local government's ombudsman's rules, there is a let-out in that, if there is a good reason why someone may not reasonably be expected to follow some other procedure laid down in law, he could still appeal to the ombudsman. Would that sort of let-out allow the Children's Commissioner to consider cases that have such legal and tribunal parameters, which would usually prevent him from carrying out an investigation? As in the case of the English local government ombudsman, could the Children's Commissioner consider whether that would be reasonable?
New clause 4 is designed to ensure that the Children's Commissioner has the right of entry into children's institutions and can obtain all the information that he requires from such institutions if he is conducting an inquiry relating to children. At present, under the Care Standards Act, he would be denied such access. Our amendment would add to section 74(3) of that Act the words:
``(a1) requiring persons to allow the Commissioner access to institutions which include children to whom this Part applies''.
Does the Bill gives the commissioner that untrammelled right of entry and questioning, or are there some areas where the Government believe that that is not appropriate? If so, the issues raised by new clause 4 deserve to be examined in detail.
I anticipate that in virtually every case the commissioner would gain access to an institution caring for or involved with children and obtain the information from the people responsible without any trouble. But as the law stands, if the people in an institution want to be less than helpful, that right of access and right to information would not be granted because they would have the right to say, ``Sorry, you cannot come in here.'' The right that I am talking about is common to children's ombudsmen in other European countries. I hope that my hon. Friend will give a positive response on the issues that I have raised in new clauses 3 and 4.