Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the reply by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 30 April (HL Deb, col 857), why they have not introduced a statutory obligation to conduct a child rights impact assessment for all law and policy decisions relating to children, as recommended by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2016.

The government remains fully committed to children’s rights and ‘The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’ (UNCRC). It is important for all children – regardless of race, religion or abilities – to have equal civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

In Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1093, dated 20 November 2018, my hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State reaffirmed the UK government’s commitment to the UNCRC. He also said he would give due consideration to the UNCRC when making new policy and legislation. This statement can be found in the following link and it is also attached: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-11-20/HCWS1093/.

To this end, we have launched a ‘Child’s Rights Impact Assessment’ (CRIA) template, which can be found in the following link and is also attached: http://clientarea.skillset.co.uk/DfE/Childrens%20Rights_v0.3%20-%20Storyline%20output/story_content/external_files/CRIA%20template.pdf,and accompanying training for civil servants across Whitehall. We are also working with children’s rights experts to effectively promote the training and the CRIA template.