Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I, too, very strongly support the amendment tabled by my noble friend Lord Northbourne. As has already been mentioned, it produces a definition which we have been searching for. Certainly at the back of my amendments yesterday about adding the responsibility of care for those in custody was that somebody should be exercising the responsibility of a parent on behalf of the people in custody. Currently I am involved with the development of a suggestion about a new type of administering custody, which is much more localised. The first part of that study has been trying to establish what would be the ethos of an establishment like that. It all boils down to this: what are you going to be doing in loco parentis? Therefore, I think it is extremely important that the provision should be replicated. It is unfortunate that it was not in the Children Act 1989 because it took, if noble Lords remember, a judicial review brought by the Howard League to get formal acceptance by the Government that the terms of the Children Act 1989 applied to those in custody, which previously were denied. Therefore I strongly support the amendment and hope that it will be accepted and put in the Bill.