Clause 8 - Arrangements to safeguard and promote welfare
Children Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Mr Hilton Dawson (Lancaster and Wyre, Labour)
I am interested in the way that the clause and the helpful speech made by my right hon. Friend the Minister have developed the ideas of the Munby judgment. Munby, in relation to the judicial review brought by the Howard league, said that the Children Act applied to children in prison but not to the institution. It seems, given the duty that will be imposed to make arrangements to safeguard and promote welfare, that this Children Bill, when enacted, will apply to children in prison. What are the implications of that for the detail of the way that children will be looked after in prison? Young offenders institutions and secure treatment centres have such poor staffing ratios and facilities and an ethos that is in many ways more appropriate to the prison system than to institutions that care for children that they are inimical to the welfare of the children in them. However, I suspect that that is an argument for another day.
Early in the debate of this Bill, my right hon. Friend predicted that the Children's Commissioner would want to examine the situation of children in custody, and I think—or at least hope—that she has never spoken a truer word. Therefore, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.