HC Deb 14 January 1999 vol 323 cc251-2W
Mr. Dawson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on progress made on the Government's report on the implementation of the United Nations convention on children's rights; and if he will make a statement. [65255]

Mr. Hutton

The Government have been making good progress with the preparation of the Second United Kingdom report on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The process was launched in February 1998 with a national conference in London which discussed key timetable and procedural requirements. Reports from across Government Departments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were assembled into a consultative draft which was circulated to NGOs in November. In addition, the Government have been greatly assisted by an advisory group which has included NGOs from across the UK. Ministers will be considering the final draft of the UK report in the New Year and it is expected to be sent to the Committee on Children in Geneva in March 1999 and published shortly thereafter in the UK.

Mr. Dawson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the role of(a) children's rights commissioners, (b) children's ombudspersons and (c) independent officers for children in other European countries; and if he will publish the results. [65256]

Mr. Hutton

We have recently made a number of announcements which take into account the recommendations of the Health Select Committee on Children Looked After by Local Authorities (July 1998) and the Children's Safeguards Review (1997). In the White Paper on Social Services (November 1998) and the Government response to the Health Select Committee (December 1998), we made commitments to introduce new mechanisms which will enable it and other responsible agencies to keep issues of children's rights and safeguards under careful scrutiny. These include establishing children's rights officers in each of the eight Commissions for Care Standards; periodic joint reporting from all the inspectorates dedicated exclusively to children; and continuing the work of the ministerial task force on children's safeguards. In addition, work on listening to and responding to the views and aspirations of children is a priority area for grant to local authorities within the quality protects programme.

These announcements were made having taken into account information on the 10 or so other countries known to have national Children's Rights Commissioner or posts with similar titles. We are not in present circumstances persuaded that it would be desirable to create such a national mechanism additional to the roles of the courts, the police and the prosecuting authorities, the various Commissions (Parliamentary, Health and local government) which already exist, the responsibilities of local and health authorities to deal with complaints and the various inspection and regulatory arrangements for ensuring that safeguards for children are properly implemented, and that their voices are heard.