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UK Borders Bill

I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's qualified support. The reason for choosing the OCC in the relevant constituent part of the UK—a point I hope he would welcome—is that that office will have as its first concern the welfare of children. It will always be open to the OCC to refer matters to other agencies if their involvement is required, but to try to specify a long list of potential agencies would give rise to a less elegant amendment. The principal point is the need for transparency. If breaches occur, somebody must be responsible for having them reported, and they must be somebody that this House and everyone involved can be reasonably certain will take effective action. I have confidence in the OCC to do that. As it is the best body to go to, this is the most effective way of protecting the interests of children—and if the OCC were not an effective way of protecting the interests of children, we should all be worried because that is what it is for. The second assurance I seek from the Minister is in response to something said by his noble Friend Lord Bassam on Third Reading. There was a discussion about whether the code could be applied retrospectively to existing contracts. Lord Bassam was not particularly precise on that. He said that"““the advice that we have received is that it can be applied to existing contracts through the notice of change procedures already in place. We intend to ensure that the Border and Immigration Agency has a system of monitoring contractors' performance by measuring them against a set of standards devised for the specific activities that they carry out for the agency.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 23 October 2007; Vol. 695, c. 1002.]" He did not state, however, whether all existing contracts would have the code of practice applied through the notice of change procedures. He simply said that it could be done. I would be grateful if the Minister could clarify that—I hope that he makes it clear that the code of practice will be applied in all such cases, and not just that it might be applied. Amendment (b) has been tabled simply in the hope—particularly in light of what happened in the other place—that everyone involved has sufficient time to agree the code. As we are taking half a step forward when we should be taking a full step forward, we must ensure that the code is supported by all who have the welfare of children at heart and that it is an effective code of practice. I recommend my amendments to the Minister and the House.