I thank the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, for their important
contributions. I thank the Minister for that response; I am grateful that he will look at this issue again. However, I have a couple of comments that I hope he will take with him.
The Minister said that Clause 15 is about the court looking at the permanence provisions. Many people would argue that such is the importance to young people of continued contact between siblings—not necessarily joint placements, which may not be possible, but particularly if they are not possible, then arrangements for them to keep in contact with each other—that when it comes to permanence provisions it has a unique relevance to the stability of the placement, the well-being of the child and the security that the child feels. It means that the child in that placement, as the noble and learned Baroness graphically conveyed from her conversations with young people, does not have that placement clouded by anxiety and concern about where brothers and sisters are. This is a unique detail in the whole panoply of details that have to be considered in permanence placements.
I say this with great respect for the Minister but, frankly, I do not accept the argument that to include the provision to require judges to ask the question—that is all that is being asked here—would delay proceedings. That sounds like a very official argument, and it is a weak one. In the amendment we simply suggest, as the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, and the noble Baroness, Lady Howarth, said, that the judge should ask, “Does this child have any siblings? If so, where are they, what are the plans, are they going to be placed together and, if not, what contact is being arranged for them?”. If the judge started the consideration with those simple questions, I do not think that that would precipitate any delay at all but it would elevate the issue to an importance that would require the professionals dealing with the detail then to have to consider the detail and, if necessary, reply to the court about what arrangements they had made for sibling conduct. With that clarification of what we are seeking here, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.