Sir Roger, if I do too much back-jobbing to yesterday’s business, I am sure you will call me out of order, but let me tell my hon. Friend that there were some intensive discussions with the relevant bodies to get assurances. They were on the basis that I need to see some fairly convincing and robust action in the next few weeks before we get to Report, otherwise we will revisit those amendments and new clauses with a vengeance then.
I have given the Government the benefit of the doubt at this stage, so I hope we can work constructively to achieve what I think the Prime Minister wants to achieve. It is what he has put on record that he wants to achieve, but some of us want to see more urgency and some clear undertakings on the face of the Bill.
That was yesterday’s business; let us return to today’s business. I do not intend at this stage to force my amendments to a vote, but I do want some assurances from the Minister. These are very important principles regarding very vulnerable children, and I want to see some concrete action when it comes to proceedings on Report. Frankly, if we do not get that, as with my case yesterday for safe and legal routes, the Bill will be much less easy to defend, and much more vulnerable to being pulled apart in another place and by lawyers. I want the Bill to go through, but I want it to be a balanced Bill that can work and that does not fall at the first hurdle.
The clauses that I am concerned with are those that place a duty on the Home Secretary to remove people, and those with an impact on children and that contain details on removal procedures. I am also concerned with the clause on the powers of detention: here, we must absolutely make sure that we do not adultify children; and they must be subject to the same safeguarding considerations as any other child already legally in the United Kingdom who is taken into custody or subject to some form of restriction on his or her liberty.
It is also worth repeating, and it has been said by several people, that no child rights impact assessment has been undertaken on the Bill, which is of concern. It would benefit the Government if they could back up the legislation with that sort of analysis. We also need justification for the removal of the duty to consult with the Independent Family Returns Panel. Those are the reasons why many children’s organisations and, indeed, the Children’s Commissioner have been vociferous on various aspects of the Bill.
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There is also the issue of the Home Office taking over the responsibility of accommodating unaccompanied children, and the Children’s Commissioner has pronounced on that quite firmly. She said in her report:
“It is entirely unclear how these powers would sit alongside Local Authorities duties under s17 of the Children Act 1989 to safeguard any child in their area and take them into their care under s20 if the criteria for doing so are met. The Bill has the potential to make it harder for Local Authorities to fulfil their duties in the Children Act 1989 in relation to ensuring stability for children as their cooperate parent and to protect and support child victims of trafficking and exploitation.”
The Children Act 1989 is clear that local authorities in England have a legal duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children who are in need within their area, which begins as soon as the child is found in the local authority area. This Act applies to all children equally in the United Kingdom regardless of their nationality, their origins, their ethnicity or their immigration status. This has been a grey area, as we have found on the Home Affairs Committee when we have interviewed Ministers previously. Where it has gone wrong is over the placing of children arriving through Dover in certain hotels. There have been cases where Home Office staff have not informed the local authority, which is the legal body in place of the parent, but they have actually placed children there. There is some confusion among Home Office
officials over whether it is the Home Office or the local authority that has prime responsibility for deciding whether they are refugees coming here irregularly through Dover, or whether they are coming here on a resettlement scheme through Afghanistan, for example. We just need greater clarity on that. I am afraid that, with the changes here, it does not aid clarity.