Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I thank the Minister for his reply and the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, for his helpful intervention. It was not our intention to suggest that IROs should be legally qualified or that they should, in general, monitor the human rights compliance of the local authority in regard to looked-after children, but merely that they should be aware of the human rights of their charges—the children in their case load as individuals—and take action if those rights are being contravened. As the noble Lord said, they are not to adjudicate; they are to refer. The problem, to which our amendment was a response, was that it does not appear that that is being done and we are not convinced that the IROs have sufficient training even to do the referral job that they are supposed to do. However, I am much encouraged by what the Minister said about lowering the threshold for intervention by the IROs if they suspect that the child’s human rights might be being contravened, although they are not able to adjudicate on the matter. I will read with considerable care what the Minister said before deciding whether to bring this back on Report, perhaps worded in a different way to avoid the confusion I mentioned earlier. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.