Hansard

Children: UN Committee on the Rights of the Child

Volume 712: debated on Monday 5 October 2009

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Questions

Asked by

Baroness Verma

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to communicate to Parliament for consideration and further action the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and their response. [HL5065]

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to communicate to children the concluding observations of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and their response. [HL5066]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families
(Baroness Morgan of Drefelin)

The concluding observations of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child provide an extremely helpful framework and we are working with key stakeholders such as NGOs and children and young people to take them forward.

In response to the UN committee's concluding observations, through a Written Statement to the House of Commons in October 2008, the Government committed to consider the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's concluding observations with NGOs. The Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families, Beverley Hughes, also wrote to Members of Parliament on progress, next steps and alerting them to the Statement to the House.

When I gave evidence on children's rights to the Joint Committee on Human Rights, in March 2009, I proposed to meet Ministers from devolved Administrations to discuss what a clear articulation of the UK's response to the concluding recommendations should look like.

In June, I met Ministers from the devolved Administrations and agreed that the Government will publish a UK-wide action plan this year, which sets out how the UK is responding to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's concluding observations and how each of the devolved Administrations are considering the recommendations within the context of their own national requirements.

Copies of the UK-wide action plan will be placed in both House Libraries.

The action plan will be easy to access and understand by children and young people. In England, we are involving children and young people in the development of the plan and will be seeking their views on action and how we communicate it.