Clause 34
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]
9:15 am
Phil Woolas (Minister of State (the North West), Home Office; Oldham East and Saddleworth, Labour)
I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on spotting an important point. This is slightly confusing, but it is because of our good intent, not because of any desire to hide anything. We think that this is a positive part of the Bill—as indeed are all the other parts. The measures in part 1 are intended to come into force on Royal Assent, but clause 57, which relates to the duty regarding children, will not because we are publishing a consultation on how the new guidelines will work so that the House and wider interest groups will have the opportunity to influence them. Given the importance of this issue, I did not want to bring those new guidelines in on Royal Assent without first having given people the opportunity to consider them. Similarly, I did not want the guidelines to be wrong or deficient in any way because we had rushed them out, or to have unintended consequences. That is what I am trying to do.
The hon. Gentleman asked about training. I have already discussed the overall strategy for training, but he is right to ask for assurances regarding transferring officers who have not had that training but will have related issues in their job descriptions. As he knows, not all the people he mentioned will be engaged in this area, but many will, and we will include in the code of practice the obligations that officials have regarding the care of children and keeping them safe from harm. Indeed, one area covered by the code is staff training.
Keeping children safe is what we refer to in management speak as a three-tier learning and development programme designed to ensure that staff have the knowledge to safeguard children. Tier 1 is an electronic package designed to raise awareness of the issues around children, and is compulsory for all UK Border Agency staff, regardless of grade or department. Tier 2 is a classroom-based course where staff will have regular contact with children or children’s issues, or conduct substantive interviews with them. Tier 3 involves job-specific training for officers.
This is an important point, given that children do come into our care. As ever, it is not the child’s fault, whatever the state or the parents have done. That is why the clause is important. I hope that that reassures the hon. Gentleman.