Legislative Scrutiny: Children, Schools and Families Bill; other Bills - Human Rights Joint Committee Contents


Memorandum submitted by Children's Rights Alliance for England (CRAE)

ABOUT CRAE

  1.  The Children's Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) seeks the full implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in England. Our vision is of a society where the human rights of all children are recognised and realised.

INTRODUCTION

  2.  This submission focuses on the bills identified by the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) for legislative scrutiny in the 2009-10 parliamentary session. We highlight significant children's rights issues raised in each of the bills and consider opportunities to strengthen children's human rights protection.

CHILD POVERTY BILL

Ending child poverty by 2020

  3.  CRAE is a member of the End Child Poverty campaign. We recognise that the Government's commitment to eradicating child poverty by 2020 should move the UK further towards compliance with its obligations under Article 27 of the UNCRC. However, we are concerned that the Child Poverty Bill defines successful eradication as a relative poverty rate of below 10%. We urge the Government to consider the recommendations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UN Committee) to provide disaggregated budgetary analysis to identify the amount of expenditure allocated to children and to consider whether this serves to effectively implement policies and legislation affecting them.

CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND GOVERNANCE BILL

Parliamentary scrutiny of treaties before ratification

  4.  CRAE welcomes increased parliamentary scrutiny of the UK's commitments to international human rights legislation as a measure to strengthen both the democratic process and parliamentary oversight of the implementation of ratified treaties. Care must be taken to ensure that this process serves to strengthen human rights protection in the UK, and does not, through a lack of knowledge and understanding of human rights, serve to undermine it. It is important that parliamentarians (and the executive) receive clear, concise and accurate information about human rights and the provisions of international law. The Government must make clear how, if at all, this process may affect the reservations or declarations that may be made to any one treaty.

EQUALITY BILL

  5.  Please see written evidence from CRAE and Young Equals submitted in June 2009 for legislative scrutiny of the Equality Bill.

IMMIGRATION SIMPLIFICATION BILL (DRAFT)

Protecting children in the immigration system

  6.  The draft Immigration Simplification Bill will bring together a broad range of legislation which has affected every stage of the immigration process. CRAE welcomes this attempt to streamline and simplify immigration legislation, but urges the Government to ensure that this does not have the unintended consequence of weakening existing protection for children in the immigration process. Despite the Government lifting its wide-ranging reservation to the UNCRC concerning immigration, we have a number of serious concerns regarding the current system, which we do not want to see exacerbated. These concerns include but are not limited to: the detention of asylum-seeking children; the lack of data on the number of children seeking asylum; the lack of independent oversight of reception conditions for unaccompanied children who have to be returned; and the prosecution of children over the age of 10 if they do not possess valid documentation upon entry to the UK.[78]

IMPROVING SCHOOLS AND SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN BILL

Educational guarantees for children and parents

  7.  CRAE welcomes the introduction of educational guarantees for children and their parents and hopes that the Government will ensure that sufficient funds are in place to make these guarantees a reality. In particular we welcome the guarantee that all children will go to a school where they are taught in a way that meets their needs and have the opportunity to express their views. We remain concerned, however, that the Government is delaying implementation of the new duty on school governing bodies to "invite and consider" the views of students.[79] In October 2008 Ministers gave assurances that these matters should include delivery of the curriculum, behaviour, school uniform, school food, health and safety, equality and sustainability.[80] In light of the proposed stronger powers for schools to enforce Home School Agreements, it is crucial that school discipline shows respect for children's human rights in both policy and practice.

Information sharing for Local Safeguarding Children Boards

  8.  In the drive to protect children through information sharing, it is crucial that children's rights to privacy and confidentiality are maintained. There are existing concerns regarding the security, privacy, transparency, accuracy and proportionality of databases such as ContactPoint, and children themselves have voiced concerns about what information is held about them, and where it goes. Explicit guidance and good training is needed to ensure that practitioners working with children and their parents are equipped to deal with the issue of informed consent for information sharing. Such guidance should make clear the importance of privacy rights as laid out in international and domestic law. CRAE urges the Government to establish a clear independent lead for the protection of children's privacy rights, particularly but not exclusively in relation to computerised databases and the collection and retention of biometric data on children.

Monitoring arrangements for children educated at home

  9.  While CRAE welcomes some form of registration and monitoring of home education, this must be proportionate and focus on the quality of the education being provided, in line with Article 29 of the UNCRC. These proposals should make sure that children and young people, whose parents opt to educate them at home, do not miss out on the educational opportunities and support available to their peers. The Government should also use the opportunity to ensure that the forthcoming bill provides for children and young people of sufficient understanding to initially and periodically be given their own say in whether, and how, they are home-educated.

Media reporting of family proceedings

  10.  The recent move to open family court hearings to the media has been heavily criticised by NGOs and lawyers, and there has already been a significant amount of confusion about the rules permitting media coverage of such cases. Although the courts have been given discretion to restrict media attendance in certain circumstances, and the Government has committed to protecting the privacy of children involved in family proceedings,[81] children's rights activists remain concerned that the rights of children involved in these hearings (including their right to privacy) are not being given sufficient priority in the Government's drive for further transparency and accountability.

POLICING, CRIME AND PRIVATE SECURITY BILL

Reducing reporting requirements on stop and search forms

  11.  CRAE is concerned that the reduction of reporting requirements for police on stop and search forms may weaken safeguards for children who are subject to stop and search. In 2008, 2,331 stop and searches were carried out by the Metropolitan Police on under-15s under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Fifty-eight of these involved children under the age of nine.[82] The Independent Police Complaints Commission is currently investigating complaints concerning the stop and search of two young girls aged six and 11 and a boy aged nine.[83] CRAE has called for clear guidelines on the stopping and searching of young children, taking account of children's views and framed by human rights requirements.

Additions to the DNA database

  12.  The proposed new police power for post-conviction DNA sampling and taking of fingerprints should not include children. The Government should establish a general presumption that DNA samples will not be taken from children following arrest, charge or conviction unless this is required for the purposes of investigating the offence for which the child was arrested. The retention of the DNA profiles of children and young people should never be indefinite and must always be subject to regular review, including automatic review when any child whose DNA profile has been retained reaches the age of 18.[84] CRAE urges the Government to significantly revise its proposals for the DNA database in order to achieve both proportionality and a sufficient differentiation between adults and children in the collection and retention of DNA.

Protecting women and girls from violence

  13.  CRAE welcomes the opportunity in the bill to consider recommendations from the Home Office consultation on violence against women and girls.[85] The Government must take care to ensure that all forms of violence against children and young people, including in domestic settings, are included in its legal definitions. We welcome its adoption of the UN definition of violence against women and girls. The Government has yet to implement a coherent response to the recommendations made in the UN Study on Violence Against Children. There is still no co-ordinated, comprehensive system for recording and analysing all instances of violence against children and young people. A cabinet-level minister should be given responsibility for co-ordinating the implementation of the recommendations of the UN Study, and for overseeing the development of a national strategy focusing explicitly on ending all forms of violence against children and young people.

Support for parents with children involved in anti-social behaviour

  14.  CRAE welcomes the provision of support for parents struggling with their child's behaviour. It is crucial that parenting assessments and Parenting Orders provide effective support for families, and do not simply become a paper trail leading to the criminal justice system. We do not believe that it is appropriate or helpful to criminalise people for non-criminal activity. The disproportionate application of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) to children (as compared to adults) has raised particular concern with regard to the appropriateness and effectiveness of their use with children. In October 2008 the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child called for a review of their application to under-18s. Positive moves by the Government to provide support to families do not dispel concerns about the Government's promotion of the anti-social behaviour agenda as a solution to the "problem" of children and young people.

30 October 2009













78   Permitted via section 2 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 2004 Back

79   Education and Skills Act 2008 Back

80   House of Lords debate, 11 November 2008: Hansard Column 573 Back

81   Ministry of Justice (2008). Family Justice in View Back

82   Metropolitan Police Authority (2009). Yearly statistics Back

83   Independent Police Complaints Commission press release (10 September 2009). Managed investigation into stop and search complaint Back

84   Standing Committee for Youth Justice (2009). Keeping the right people on the DNA database: response on behalf of the SCYJ Back

85   Home Office (2009). Together we can end violence against women and girls Back


 
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