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Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, I find myself agreeing with a great deal of what the noble Earl, Lord Howe, said. However, for the reasons I explained when speaking to the first group of amendments, I could not support him in the Lobby if he chose to seek the opinion of the House today, because of the hierarchy of priorities that I hold. In an ideal world, I would very much like to see us put something into statute about reasonable contact or even child-centred contact, because it would be very much clearer for everybody. But until we have sorted out the safety issues, which we shall do later today, I would not feel in a position to do that. Noble Lords will notice that my name and that of my noble friend Lady Barker are attached to Amendment No. 6; that is because it was part of a package of amendments that we tabled in Committee. On the other amendments we have changed our approach. In an ideal world, I should like to amend the Bill in that way, but I do not feel that we can do that until we have sorted out the safety issues. As for the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, I very much understand the spirit of what he is trying to do, but I question whether any piece of legislation could enable a child to love and trust each of his parents. That is a very noble aspiration, but it is beyond the means of any legislation to be able to ensure such a thing. As for Amendment No. 4—to return to my comments on the first group of amendments—I noted that the Select Committee on Constitutional Affairs suggested that it might be a good way forward to put something about reasonable contact in the welfare checklist. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s remarks in that regard, because I would very much welcome a conversation with the noble Earl, Lord Howe, and the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, on the subject.