Jane Hutt, Minister for Children, Education and Lifelong Learning and Skills in the Welsh Assembly Government wrote to the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, in May 2008, expressing an interest in joining a ministerial delegation for the UK Government’s oral hearing with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on 23/24 September 2008.
The Secretary of State gave careful consideration to the make up of the delegation and decided that it would be more appropriate for the delegation to be comprised of senior officials from across government and the Devolved Administrations.
The UK Government do not routinely send Ministers to treaty monitoring examinations and, like most other western countries, Ministers have not attended previous hearings with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. Junior Minister Gerry Kelly from the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, Northern Ireland also expressed an interest in attending.