Clause 2 - General function
Children Bill [Lords]
4:45 pm
Mrs Margaret Hodge (Minister of State (Children), Department for Education and Skills; Barking, Labour)
Our amendments are so clear and precise because they took so long to draft. I apologise to members of the Committee for the fact that they were not given as much notice of the amendments as they would have liked and I would have liked to give them. However, we have some good amendments before us, for which we thank our parliamentary draftsmen.
My response to the question asked by the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham is that, the moment we include a time frame in the Bill, that becomes the accepted orthodoxy. People then think that they have got three months in which to respond, even if they could actually respond in a shorter time. Equally, if the three-month period is insufficient, there will not be a proper response. I hope that the hon. Gentleman understands that, and accepts that it would be inappropriate to include such a provision.
Will monitoring take place? It is difficult for me to give assurances on how the commissioner will choose to work. However, I cannot think that he would put energy into producing a report with recommendations and not wish to see them implemented. I hope that the powers that we include in Government amendments Nos. 171 and 177 will give the commissioner the necessary authority to carry out such monitoring; it is therefore unnecessary to include a provision for monitoring in the Bill. I have no doubt that the commissioner will wish to carry out monitoring and to ensure that his recommendations are implemented or, at least, responded to, if there is a good reason why a particular organisation cannot implement them.