When it's the one in England.
In the Children Bill's committee stage in the Commons last week children's minister Margaret Hodge drove through five amendments removing references to children's rights that had been inserted by the House of Lords. The function of the children's commissioner in England will be to promote the views and interests of children, not their rights.
Hodge has argued all along that she does not want a commissioner who becomes bogged down in casework. But there are more than practical considerations behind her refusal. It can't be that hard to frame a remit that allows the commissioner to only take on cases of significance to children generally, and that are beyond the remit or experience of local government, the health service ombudsmen and the like.
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