---

Baroness Thornton moved Amendment No. 27:

After Clause 6, insert the following new clause—

"RISK ASSESSMENTS
After section 16 of the Children Act 1989 (c. 41) insert—
"16A RISK ASSESSMENTS
(1) This section applies to the following functions of officers of the Service or Welsh family proceedings officers—
 
14 Nov 2005 : Column 926
 

(a) any function in connection with family proceedings in which the court has power to make an order under this Part with respect to a child or in which a question with respect to such an order arises;
(b) any function in connection with an order made by the court in such proceedings.
(2) If, in carrying out any function to which this section applies, an officer of the Service or a Welsh family proceedings officer is given cause to suspect that the child concerned is at risk of harm, he must—
(a) make a risk assessment in relation to the child, and
(b) provide the risk assessment to the court.
(3) A risk assessment, in relation to a child who is at risk of suffering harm of a particular sort, is an assessment of the risk of that harm being suffered by the child.""

On Question, amendment agreed to.

Baroness Morris of Bolton moved Amendment No. 28:

After Clause 7, insert the following new clause—

"REMOVAL OF CHILD FROM JURISDICTION
The Secretary of State shall lay before Parliament proposals to strengthen the efficacy of the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction agreed at the Hague on 25th October 1980."

The noble Baroness said: My Lords, as your Lordships know, the Hague Convention is a multilateral treaty that seeks to protect children from the harmful effects of abduction and retention across international boundaries by providing a procedure to bring about their prompt return. I have retabled the amendment to discuss in more detail some of the responses that the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, provided in Grand Committee and in his letter of 24 October, for which I thank him.

In Committee, I raised concerns that had been expressed about the effective implementation of our duties under the Hague Convention and the use of the International Child Abduction and Contact Unit (ICACU)—concerns about whether we really are addressing the scale of the problem. The noble Lord, Lord Adonis, argued in Grand Committee that the convention,

"is generally recognised as working well and we play a full part in it".—[Official Report, 17/10/05; col. GC 165.]

I would suggest that only with the true statistics will we be able to clarify if that is indeed the case. I understand the need to protect vulnerable children who may be involved in cases, but surely there must be a way to publish the figures separately from case details. As it stands, we have no idea exactly how many children are abducted by a parent every year.

Have the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, or the noble Baroness, Lady Ashton, seen a copy of PACT's report Every Five Minutes—indeed, they have, it is
 
14 Nov 2005 : Column 927
 
available—which is a review of the available data on missing children in the UK? It highlights the fact that every five minutes a child is reported missing in the UK. Alongside the human and social cost, missing children must be one of the urgent social issues of our time. Will the Minister's department respond to the report and, if so, when will that response be published?

The noble Lord, Lord Adonis, said in Grand Committee that the International Child Abduction and Contact Unit in the office of the Official Solicitor, as well as processing applications for return and contact, provides information to parents. I wonder whether the Minister can clarify that information. Does it include legal advice, or just a list of practitioners to whom parents can go for advice? What happens if parents cannot afford legal practitioners?

In Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, discussed the Child Abduction Co-ordination Group. Will the Minister explain the most recent suggestions on new ways to prevent abduction and say whether the Government will be implementing them?

We were glad to hear that the convention was kept under review by the Hague Permanent Bureau through a series of regular special commissions. As the Minister highlighted, the second commission in 2002 concluded that improved contact arrangements could reduce the risk of abduction. Indeed, in the current Hague Project on Preventive Measures, the background document states:

"Orders or agreements may be sought during, for example, divorce or custody hearings, which prohibit the unilateral removal of a child from a jurisdiction. Such pre-emptive prohibitions at a stage when the parents have possibly never even contemplated abduction may alert them to the potential illegality of any removal. Thus abductions may be averted as a parent is made aware of the need to contact the other parent in order to discuss potential removals".

I wonder whether the Government have responded to the Hague questionnaire on preventive issues. Did they respond last year to the one on enforcement?

As a solicitor has highlighted to us, the arrangements for contact in the family law system often make parents unreasonable, thus contributing to the possibility that one will resort to abducting their child. That is why we strongly propose the inclusion of co-parenting and reasonable contact, both of which proposals have been defeated. We need to focus on prevention rather than cure, although we recognise what the Government are trying to do with contact activities and enforcement.

Abduction is the most dramatic strand of parent alienation, which has critical effects on the child's welfare and mental well-being. I do not know whether this is the right amendment. I do not know whether there is a right amendment to be made to the Bill. We just felt that the matter was of sufficient importance to debate. I beg to move.

Baroness Barker: My Lords, I offer our support to the noble Baroness, Lady Morris. I do so principally because I watched a couple of television programmes on the subject that were some of the most harrowing
 
14 Nov 2005 : Column 928
 
that I have ever seen. I understand that, although PACT may not be the Government's favourite organisation at this moment, it is important that people who may wind up in this situation are alerted as early as possible to that possibility.

In Grand Committee, I asked whether the Minister could supply information about which countries and which jurisdictions were the main ones to which children had been abducted and not returned. I am pleased to say that the Minster supplied it. I am interested, as I have been throughout the Bill's passage, in the extent to which practitioners and parents can be given information and resources to enable them to deal with the situation that emerges. As well as monitoring aspects of the convention, which the Government must do, do they provide resources, particularly to the voluntary organisations that are in touch with parents, to allow them to pass on information and experience to each other? I know a number of women—it is usually women in this situation—who, although they have not succeeded in getting their children back, have had limited contact with them in the country to which they have been abducted. That is not wonderful, but it is something, and it is better than nothing. If the experiences of individuals who have battled their way through different legal systems could be made available to people who one day find themselves in a horrifying situation that they never envisaged when they started out on life, that would be of enormous benefit. Just as we have been arguing on the domestic scene, on the international scene it is also about trying to enable good practice to be handed on between parents.

Baroness Ashton of Upholland: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for raising this incredibly important issue. I am the Minister responsible for the Hague Convention, so I am delighted to be able to discuss it.

I have got the PACT report. I have no views about PACT as an organisation; it seems to be doing an extremely good job. I have already committed my officials to talking to PACT, because a lot of the issues that have been raised by both noble Baronesses should be dealt with by good conversations about what happens. We fund an organisation called Reunite, which offers help and support 24 hours a day, seven days a week to parents who may find themselves in this situation. I take on board the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, about what more we could do to give parents greater support by knowing about other situations that have been relevant in particular countries.

We keep a lot more statistics than we publish, and the reason why we do not publish them is that we have grave concerns about identifying the children involved. So we know a lot more; I know about all the individual cases that come to my attention. We are keen to ensure that this is kept under review. I do a lot of work with my counterparts in Europe where we may
 
14 Nov 2005 : Column 929
 
have a particular issue with an individual country where you can see from the statistics that perhaps more needs to be done. We have bilaterals going on between officials and between me and my fellow Ministers to raise issues and try to deal with them speedily as possible. Noble Lords know that my department acts as a "central authority" to process applications and to provide information to parents. I cannot get an answer in time on the specific question about legal advice, so I shall write to the noble Baroness.

---