UK Borders Bill

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply and I thank all of those who have contributed to the debate and who have supported my amendment. I am grateful to the Minister for letting us have a copy of the code of practice, but it is a bit late. After listening to what he said in his response, it seems to me that what we have got is probably not complete. It categorises itself as a high-level document and some of the criticisms which have arisen from the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, and one or two others, are probably brought about by the fact that it clearly does not quite cover all the areas that it is going to cover. I gather from the way the Minister has put his points when talking about the future that indeed there is far more to be done on this code of practice than is here before us. So it will not help a great deal as we consider whether the amendment should continue to be moved. I think I am grateful for the Minister’s sympathy with the contracting-out aspect. I hope in expressing that, he means that he will come back at a later stage with something which will help us with that issue. Where other agencies are involved, it is terribly important that they are covered by this code of practice. It is essential that anyone dealing with children under these extremely difficult circumstances should at least be following a common line so that all agencies know what they are doing and are all doing the same thing. That may or may not be covered—it was not absolutely clear whether it would be—but I hope that later on in the Bill the Minister will be able to help on that issue, although I am not going to count on it. I turn now to the main part of the amendment which concerns the safeguarding and welfare of the child. Again, I hear what the Minister says—that the Border and Immigration Agency cannot have a responsibility for the welfare of the child—but if the agency does not have responsibility for the welfare of the child, who on earth does? The children are within its control and within its remit. It may be that that throws it a little wider as far as responsibilities are concerned under the Children Act, but at the moment these children are outside all the areas that will keep them safe from harm and look after their welfare. I thank the Minister for his rather limited response to the amendment. Clearly, it is too late for us to give proper time to the code of practice as it appears at the moment. As the Minister is absolutely adamant about not including a duty to promote the welfare of the child, I wish to test the opinion of the House. On Question, Whether the said amendment (No. 5) shall be agreed to? Their Lordships divided: Contents, 104; Not-Contents, 105.