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UK Borders Bill

My Lords, I say ““Hear, hear”” to the last two sentences of the speech by the noble Lord, Lord Avebury. It will be very interesting to hear what the Government say in reply. The noble Earl, Lord Listowel, is right, and the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, echoed him: it is not, alas, possible to say that children should never be in detention and it is probably not possible to say that they should never be in detention for longer than seven days. There is the question of separating families: if the parents are not to disappear—if the father is not to disappear—the children may have to be in detention for the briefest possible period. The important thing is how they are treated when they are in detention. That is what we will come to with Amendments Nos. 5 and 16, which are extremely important. The idea that a teenager should be detained for five months in this context is horrifying. I am glad that the noble Earl pointed that out. That is what happens with systems—they go wrong. It is the Government’s responsibility to try to prevent them going wrong. We all owe it to children to do that. However, it is not possible for me to follow the noble Lord, Lord Judd, in the Lobby.