Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I am conscious that the Minister is in difficulty here because other government departments have an interest in these matters. When the Children Bill was going through this House—it was after the Victoria Climbié case—I remember thinking what wonderful legislation it was and how content I was that here was something on which I could agree with my Government at a rather painful time when I had to disagree with them on a number of other matters. Here was something with which I could be completely content. I felt happy that I was going to be able, with great willingness, to go through the Lobbies in support. Then, one evening, I came into the House and took my place on my Government’s Benches. I was shocked to hear an amendment being moved by the Minister that would keep out of the great advances being included in the legislation the children of immigrants. Child asylum seekers would not have the protection that the Children Bill would provide to others. I heard Bishops and a number of other lone voices in a quite empty House speak about the horror of some children being deprived of the protection and the human rights for which we were aching for the children of this country. We have the opportunity to right a wrong. Through my practice and through other human rights lawyers at the Bar dealing with the issues of asylum and immigration, I have seen very closely the suffering that children experience as a result of their not having the same protections as we would expect for the other children of this country. We should not be making those differences between the children who are citizens and those who are not. I hope that the Minister can provide us with some solace. When the Children Act was passed, I met some colleagues from the other place at a social gathering and expressed my horror that we had exempted the children of asylum seekers from the great protections of the Act, and they told me that they were completely unaware of that. It is the nature of politics in our current system that often the small print is rushed through these Houses and it misses the kind of examination that it should have. I think that many people did not realise the terrible wrong that was being created in the Act when we excluded those children. I warmly support the amendments. This is an opportunity for us to put right something that should not have happened.