I will speak to Amendment 147 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, and support Amendment 151C in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Coaker. I share the dismay of others that we are discussing a whole part of the Bill between 2.15 am and, maybe, three in the morning. We are being punished because we want decent scrutiny of this Bill. The refusal of the Government to allow us the extra day we need in Committee is disgraceful.
Anyway, given the difficulties with assessing age, occasionally young adults may be treated as children. However, as long as there is good supervision in children’s placements, this is less of a risk than when children are incorrectly treated as adults and placed in immigration detention alone, accommodated with adults and with no safeguarding measures.
A significant number of disputes are not actually about whether an individual is a child or an adult but about whether they are a 15 or a 17 year-old child, so they are not relevant to whether the individual will be
categorised as an adult or a child. Current Department for Education statutory guidance states that local authority age assessments should be carried out only when there is reason to doubt that the individual is the age that they claim, and
“should not be a routine part of a local authority’s assessment”.
The Association of Directors of Children’s Services says that they should not be undertaken unless “absolutely necessary”. Clause 48 would result in almost every child without recognised documentation going through the age assessment process. That is excessive.
Amendment 147 would delete Clause 51(6) and (7), as the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, said, so that refusal to consent to scientific procedures should not feature in an assessment of credibility. The British Association of Social Workers calls that part of Clause 51 “grotesque coercion”—I think that another organisation also referred to coercion—and one can see why. Amendment 151C, which was tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Coaker, and supported by me and the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, would rightly impose strict conditions on any procedure. I expect that we will hear more about that.
Age assessment is not susceptible to a scientific silver bullet. It needs a multiagency holistic approach. Scientific methods can be very invasive and even traumatic for a young person, and are hugely controversial. The Government seem to be seeking a quick fix, but it will not work and is neither legitimate nor—as the noble Baroness, Lady Lister, said—ethical. In addition, the Government are leaving themselves a lot of scope to legislate by regulations. If it were not this time in the morning, I would have said more, but I will leave things there.