Children Bill [HL]

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 8:30 pm on 4 May 2004.

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Photo of Baroness Walmsley Baroness Walmsley Shadow Minister, Home Affairs 8:30, 4 May 2004

I rise to speak to Amendments Nos. 12, 15, 16, 21 and 23 in this group, and to support the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, in particular in his Amendment No. 41. I too am in favour of a commissioner who has a right to be heard.

The purpose of my amendments is to probe the scope and functions of the Children's Commissioner and the resources available to her or him. For example, how will the work of the commissioner influence government policy across all departments, their related quangos and other policy-making bodies? Will he or she be able to commission or sponsor other organisations to conduct research on his behalf? How influential will the commissioner be in practice? Where the issue concerns the interests of children, will he or she be formally consulted by bodies such as the Commission for Racial Equality, the Learning and Skills Council or the Advertising Standards Authority? How will that work in practice?

Amendment No. 12 would further strengthen the dreaded "R" word—children's rights—by allowing the commissioner to require anyone exercising functions, or engaged in activities, affecting children to take account of their views and interests. It is all very well the commissioner having to take account of children's views and interests, but it would be good if he or she were able to require other people to do the same. Amendment No. 15 would replace the rather weak provision on considering and researching complaints procedures for children, with the altogether more robust duty to review and report on the effectiveness of advice and advocacy services, complaints procedures, inspection and whistle-blowing arrangements, so far as they relate to children. The same sort of thing applies to the Commissioner for Wales.

Amendment No. 16 allows the commissioner to participate in matters affecting children on bodies to which he or she is appointed. It seeks to probe the Government's intentions for the commissioner's influence in relation to quangos and other bodies. It will allow the Minister, if she will, to give further clarification of the resources available to the Children's Commissioner.

If the Government do intend that the commissioner will have influence over the work of such bodies as relate to children, will there be sufficient resources available to make such an involvement manageable? How does the role of the Children's Commissioner in relation to other bodies compare with the functions of other similar bodies such as the General Teaching Council? A key part of its role is to advise government and other education partners on issues affecting the profession, based on teachers' views and expertise.

Amendment No. 21 is very similar to Amendment No. l8 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas. That allows the commissioner to sponsor research by other bodies. But there is again the resource implication. The proposed funding of the Children's Commissioner is minimal. To be effective both the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, and mine would need funding. The resources available would have to be substantially increased.

Amendment No. 23 was referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Rix, a little earlier and I added the word "all", which relates to "all children". The reason for that was to satisfy the many lobbying groups. We are all very grateful for their help. They wished to insert different kinds of children. When I was presented with such amendments it occurred to me what the Minister was likely to say in reply. I suspected that she would say that the provision would refer to all children and it was not necessary to specify particular groups.

However, without a pro-active statement on equality in the Bill, disabled children, asylum-seeking children, children in custody, the children of ethnic minorities and Travellers' children, may not benefit fully from the work of the Children's Commissioner. Therefore, it would be very helpful if the noble Baroness would look favourably on inserting the word "all" to send out a message to all groups that every child is included in the measures encapsulated in the Bill. I look forward to hearing the Minister's response to all these amendments and in particular to Amendment No. 23.