Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I support the amendment. I am sure that I am speaking out of turn, so I am very grateful to the Minister for his statement on the Government’s clear intention and their analysis of the situation. We all have to take seriously the difference underlined in that analysis from the YL case. But there is a lot of uncertainty and where human rights are concerned there should not be uncertainty. It should not be necessary for people to have to resort to all sorts of special initiatives to find out exactly what their rights are, how they apply and why the Government’s interpretation prevails. I hope that my noble friend will therefore understand that among the agencies working in the front line with children there is a strong desire to seize this opportunity to make the situation more explicitly clear in law. I hope that my noble friend will consider doing this. I should perhaps say to the Committee that when I was a member of the Joint Committee on Human Rights it was extremely exercised by that situation. Indeed, I think it is fair to say that it goes to great lengths not to find itself in contention with the Law Lords but it was deeply disappointed by their decision on this issue because it did not find it helpful in fulfilling the spirit of the Human Rights Act. Be that as it may, we have a situation here which needs to be clarified. One of the points that I would have made on this in our internal discussions in the Joint Committee is that surely there should at least be some provision in the Bill that makes it clear beyond doubt that when a local authority is making a contract with an organisation to provide services it should be stated firmly and beyond question that part of that contract concerns the fulfilment of obligations under the Human Rights Act. As I understand it, I do not believe that is universally applicable and I think that it should be made applicable. Can my noble friend reassure us on that point?