Schedule 10

Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 1:15 pm ar 22 Tachwedd 2007.

Danfonwch hysbysiad imi am ddadleuon fel hyn

Photo of Edward Garnier Edward Garnier Shadow Minister (Justice) 1:15, 22 Tachwedd 2007

I beg to move amendment No. 157, in schedule 10, page 165, line 2, at end add—

‘A local authority in any part of the United Kingdom which owns or manages secure accommodation.’.

This is a short amendment, which adds a further controlling authority. One sees from clause 50 that, in part 4 of the Bill, a controlling authority is defined as

“(a) a person listed in schedule 10; or (b) any person of a description specified in an order made by the Secretary of State”.

The list of persons in schedule 10 includes the most obvious sorts of people that one would expect. For this purpose, “person” means not only human beings but legal personalities. I propose to add to that list.

The Minister may well persuade me that a local authority that controls or manages secure accommodation is already covered by the listed persons, or that my adding of such authorities would be the result of a misunderstanding of the definition of controlling authorities and its purpose in clause 50. Local authorities own and manage secure accommodation, and the commissioner ought to have an eye on such things, subject to the children’s commissioner or the children’s ombudsman—one of whom we discussed briefly this morning—having a parallel or distinct jurisdiction.