---

Children and Young Persons Bill [HL]

I am grateful for all the complimentary remarks that have been made, both about me personally and about the Government Whips’ Office, which has sought to accommodate the legitimate concerns of noble Lords that they should have an adequate opportunity to consider the government amendments before we move on to Report. We are glad to have been able to accommodate that request. I was asked a large number of questions. I shall seek to answer as many as I can, although I may have to respond to some in writing. I am glad that there has been a general welcome from noble Lords in response to the new power set out in this amendment. The noble Lord, Lord Williamson, asks whether there is a precise parallel for the phrase, "““activities in connection with parenting””." I am not aware of a precise parallel, but I can tell him that Section 14 of the Education Act 2002 gives the Secretary of State power to give financial assistance to support parenting, including support for prospective parents. Therefore, this builds on powers that exist in current legislation. The noble Baronesses, Lady Morris and Lady Sharp, asked whether the new duty applies just to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families or to other Secretaries of State. I can tell them that the duty is in relation to all government departments with regard to policy on children, not just to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families. The noble Baroness, Lady Morris, mentioned asylum and immigration children. All relevant government departments will need to have regard to well-being in forming policies. However, the new duty sits alongside other legal duties on Secretaries of State, who will need to balance all their legal duties when developing policy and taking action on specific cases. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, and the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, talked about Wales. The new clause applies only to children in England. Wales is aware of the Secretary of State’s policy reasons for taking a new duty but is content at this stage not to take one itself. Wales has indicated that it does not have the immediate problems of financial propriety encountered by the Secretary of State in incurring expenditure under contracts, by virtue of Section 68 of the Government of Wales Act 2006. It therefore does not see the need to take the power at this stage. In relation to financial propriety and contracting, the amendment will enable the Secretary of State to meet the Government’s financial propriety rules when he incurs expenditure in contractual relationships with providers in the third and private sectors. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, asked me to set out more fully why this was necessary and I am glad to do so. While there are powers to provide financial assistance through grants in Sections 14 and 15 of the Education Act 2002, there is no general statutory provision that provides the Secretary of State with authority to incur expenditure under contracts in relation to his children’s services activities, as there currently is for education. A general provision such as this can be construed as providing the Secretary of State with statutory authority to incur expenditure under a contract, because the provision is general in nature and silent as to how resources are to be applied for that purpose. One effect of taking the duty would be to plug the gap and remove the need for the department in future to seek specific legislation for a particular project related to children’s well-being that entailed expenditure under contracts. It would also reduce the number of circumstances in which the department needed to seek the Treasury’s permission to rely on the sole authority of the Appropriation Act. In particular, this would enable contracts to be let nationally to better support local authorities to deliver children’s services—for example, by providing expertise to assist in the establishment of Sure Start children’s centres, which I think would be welcomed on all sides of the Committee. The noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, asked me whether the provision changes the legal duties of local authorities. It involves no changes in their legal duties, which will continue as they are now, and it does not make any changes to the funding regime for local authorities, including that balance between generally allocated and ring-fenced resources, which would not be subject to any change simply as a result of the amendment. The noble Baroness, Lady Sharp, asked whether the definition of care leavers would be set out more fully elsewhere. We intend to do that. Subsection (6) of the new clause will give the Secretary of State power to make regulations in this regard. The noble Baroness raised some other, more detailed and technical issues in respect of the Barnardo’s response, to which I shall respond in writing. On Question, amendment agreed to.