Children and Adoption Bill [HL]

My Lords, we seem to have almost a unanimity of opinion in the House this afternoon, which I hope that we can retain for the rest of our proceedings. Amendments Nos. 27 and 34 have been tabled by my noble friends Lady Gould and Lady Thornton, to whom I pay tribute for the huge time that they have spent pursuing these issues, long before my arrival in the House, in successive Bills. The Government are happy to accept those amendments, as we believe that they are a very constructive step forward in ensuring that issues of domestic violence and child abuse are properly addressed as soon as they are raised and before decisions about contact are made, or at any other point in private law Children Act proceedings when they would be relevant. The right reverend Prelate raised the important issue of training officers who are to undertake risk assessments and how a risk assessment that is poorly undertaken can have calamitous consequences for those concerned. I entirely agree with him and know that the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service takes extremely seriously the training of those who undertake the assessments. He will have heard what my noble friend Lady Pitkeathley said on the subject. We believe that it is an important step forward. CAFCASS is already highly experienced in making these risk assessments and already undertakes them when it believes that they are appropriate, but putting it on a statutory basis will be a step forward and will address many of the concerns that have been raised in various stages of the debate on this Bill that the interests of the child should be paramount. That includes assessing as expeditiously as possible concerns about domestic violence and child abuse. I am glad that the amendments have had such a warm welcome from CAFCASS. We believe that they will need to be properly resourced, and we will provide the resources necessary. We see this as an important step forward and are happy to support the amendments.