Schedule 1 - Children's Commissioner
Children Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mrs Margaret Hodge (Minister of State (Children), Department for Education and Skills; Barking, Labour)
We must consider the two provisions together. Let us take the Victoria Climbie case as an example. At the time, there was a section 8 inquiry by the local authority's area child protection committee into the circumstances of her tragic death. However, the issues raised both in that inquiry and during the trial were of much wider public interest—hence the provisions in subsection (1). Although in that instance work had taken place elsewhere, the wider public policy ramifications of the particular case were such that it warranted a public inquiry. There may be circumstances in which that situation prevails again once we have the commissioner in place.
Subsection (2) ensures that the commissioner does not get involved in a range of individual complaints that other bodies such as the local authority ombudsman could investigate. However, when an individual incident or complaint has wider policy ramifications, the commissioner could instigate an inquiry into it. I hope that that makes it clear to the hon. Gentleman. It will be a matter of judgment for the commissioner, and in later clauses we suggest that the commissioner will want to discuss that with the Secretary of State. However, the provisions give the commissioner the essential independence, which people were worried that we were not giving, to pursue cases that have wider public policy implications.