Category Archives: Bills

Parents Of Children in Care Should Have More Rights, Says Lawyer

18 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by in Bills, child welfare, Researching Reform

≈ 2 Comments

A lawyer has told France’s President Emmanuel Macron that French law must be amended to ensure that parents of children placed in care have adequate rights to defend themselves and challenge care orders.

Michel Amas submitted a proposal for the legal amendment to the French President, with the support of Yves Moraine, a lawyer and the mayor of Boroughs 6 and 8 in Marseille.

The development was reported by French news outlet, 20 Minutes.

Our translation of the report is added below:

Marseille: “Parents of children in care have no rights” – Marseille lawyers want to change the law.

CHILD PROTECTION: A bill was sent to Emmanuel Macron asking for parents to have more rights to defend child protection cases.

After his video denouncing the injustice of certain situations of children placed in care went viral, the Marseille lawyer Michel Amas wants to create new rights for parents.

Collaborating with Yves Moraine, a senior official of the municipal council, Amas submitted a proposal for a law to France’s President Emmanuel Macron.

The aim of the law is for lawyers to ensure access to the child welfare file before the hearing, and for judges to be required, within a certain time, to respond to parents’ requests.

“I have represented people who have been given thirty year prison sentences for their crimes, but nothing is more violent than what happens in the family court. ” A lawyer at the Marseille Bar, Michel Amas was a specialist in medical negligence cases before finding himself working on a case involving the unjust removal of children from their parents, a situation he describes as unacceptable: “The parents of children placed in care do not have fewer rights than others, they have none,” the lawyer said.

He has since defended 300 child protection cases throughout France and, each time, he says he has to confront the same problem: “There is a presumption of guilt which weighs immediately on the parents. And this mistrust is reflected in the total lack of resources given to parents to be able to defend themselves and to be involved in the process. ”

A video goes viral
In July, when one of his clients was in despair, he spoke out in an online video which was viewed almost 4 million times. “The video did not go viral because I am charismatic but because I respond to the angst of parents”, insisted Michel Amas, who does not intend to stop with the video and today launched an initiative to change the law.

Or at the very least, to help the law evolve. Rather than overhauling the 1945 ordinance on the protection of minors, Amas hopes to re-orient the “risk of harm” threshold so that it sits in the right place. “Over time, the threshold has slipped, and the courts now consider parental conflict to be enough of a reason to remove children, rather than treat issues with medical follow-up, social assistance, or household help”, he said.

“The child, the parents, the grandparents have less rights than an individual suspected of a crime,” said Yves Moraine, lawyer and leader of the LR majority in the city council, who cosigned the bill which was passed to the French President. “We demand the creation of additional rights and that these rights are implemented without delay,” he added. “It is not normal for defenders not to have any weapons to represent parents,” said Michel Amas. You can ask a judge for a visit at the weekend on behalf of the parent, two hours instead of one, but the judge does not have to answer us. And when that contact is not granted, there are no other courses of action.”

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“The camera does not protect the child but the judges”
Grandparents of a 5-year-old boy, placed a year ago with a foster family, Sabrina and Hugo say they are “living a nightmare”.

They are ready to welcome him into their home in Gémenos, ready to take him to school, to extracurricular activities, but they face long delays inside a system whose procedures are achingly slow. All they want is to get three hours with their grandson, an occasional outing, an overnight stay in their home, to see how things go.

The proposed law aims to reduce the period of investigation and require the magistrate to respond to the requests of the parties within one month.

It also forces child protection services to file their report before the hearing.

“In criminal cases, we can submit evidence, defend our clients… I have pleaded hundreds of times, but in child protection cases I have never received any social services reports before the hearing,” laments Mr Amas, who also said, “the camera does not not protect the child but the judges.”

Taking a more diplomatic stance, Yann Arnoux-Pollak, president of the Marseille Bar, said he supported the approach and emphasised that “if we want judges to do their job, we must give them the means”.

It remains unclear whether parliamentarians will take up the bill.

You can follow Yves Moraine on Twitter @YvesMoraine, and watch the latest videos on the French child protection system by Michel Amas on his law firm’s website.

Please note that the video below, in which Michel talks about the problems within France’s child protection system, is in French. Amas confirms that he will not mention the names and details of the families involved in the relevant child protection cases.

 

 

Children And Social Work Bill Comes Into Force

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Bills, Researching Reform

≈ 3 Comments

The Children and Social Work Bill, now The Children and Social Work Act 2017 was given Royal Assent on 27th April.

The legislation raised some very serious concerns about its impact on child rights and the provision of family services within child protection generally, not least of all in relation to the now infamous opt out clause which would have allowed local authorities to do away with fundamental rights for families and children. (This element of the Bill was aggressively opposed by child welfare charities and campaigners, peers in the House of Lords and social work professionals, resulting in its removal from the Bill).

You can catch the text of the Bill here and more information about its journey and the discussions about it in Parliament. 

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Government DOUBLES Sentence For Stalking

06 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by in Bills, Researching Reform

≈ 1 Comment

This just in:

The government plans to double the sentence for stalking from 5 to 10 years. Justice Minister Sam Gyimah confirmed the move this afternoon, which follows the recently announced plan  to create new stalking protection orders.

Campaigners and victims of stalking will no doubt welcome the news, which also includes a change in sentencing guidelines for racially or religiously aggravated stalking – the maximum custodial sentence available to the courts for this offence will increase from 7 to 14 years.

Justice Minister Sam Gyimah:

Stalkers torment their victims and can make everyday life almost unbearable. We are doubling the maximum sentences available to the courts so these awful crimes can be properly punished.

I would like to thank Alex Chalk MP and Richard Graham MP for their considerable efforts in highlighting this issue.

We are also working across the criminal justice system to ensure mental health issues associated with these crimes are properly addressed.

The press release goes on to tell us that the government will be hoping to implement these changes via the Policing and Crime Bill, which is going through Parliament at the moment. The government tabled these amendments to the Bill today. There are also plans to raise the maximum sentence for harassment – from 5 to 10 years and 7 to 14 years if racially or religiously aggravated.

New protection orders will also be used to intervene early to keep victims safe and stop ‘stranger stalking’ before it worsens. The new measures will give the police permission to place controls on perpetrators, which will prevent their behaviour intensifying while the crime is being investigated.

In 2015, 1,029 people were convicted of the two offences (194 people of the stalking offence and 835 of putting people in fear of violence). The average custodial sentence for stalking was 14.1 months.

 

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Justice Minister, Sam Gyimah

 

Hurry! Have Your Say On The Children And Social Work Bill And Make A Difference

06 Tuesday Dec 2016

Posted by in Bills, child welfare, Researching Reform

≈ 4 Comments

The Children and Social Work Bill is now taking written submissions from anyone with an interest in its contents.

Best known for its controversial clause allowing local authorities to do away with fundamental duties and responsibilities set out in children’s social care legislation, this review stage represents a crucial opportunity to share your views with the Public Bill Committee, and make sure children’s rights are not further reduced and their lives not placed at greater risk. This is a highly effective process, and a great deal of weight is given to evidence, so your contribution CAN make a difference.

The window in which to send in submissions though, is narrow – The Committee is set to have its first meeting on Tuesday 13 December and will stop receiving written evidence at the end of the Committee stage at 5.00pm on Tuesday 17 January, 2017.

Once the Committee completes its consideration of the Bill it will no longer able to receive written evidence. Parliament’s website goes on to advise that it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Tuesday 17 January 2017, so it’s vital to share your views as soon as you can. 

We are adding some useful information from Parliament UK below, but please do click on the first link above for a full break down of the details including how the Committee handles the evidence it receives:

Guidance on submitting written evidence

Deadline for written evidence submissions

The Public Bill Committee is now able to receive written evidence. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into consideration. Once the Committee has dealt with an amendment it will not revisit it. The order in which amendments are taken in Committee can be found under Selection of Amendments.

The Committee is expected to meet for the first time on Tuesday 13 December 2016; it will stop receiving written evidence at the end of the Committee stage on Tuesday 17 January 2017. Please note that when the Committee concludes its consideration of the Bill it is no longer able to receive written evidence and it can conclude earlier than the expected deadline of 5.00pm on Tuesday 17 January 2017.

What should written evidence cover?

Your submission should address matters contained within the Bill and concentrate on issues where you have a special interest or expertise, and factual information of which you would like the Committee to be aware.

Your submission could most usefully:

suggest amendments to the Bill, with supporting explanation; and
(when amendments are published) support or oppose amendments tabled to the Bill by Members of Parliament, with supporting explanation
It is helpful if the submission includes a brief introduction about you or your organisation. The submission should not have been previously published or circulated elsewhere.

If you have any concerns about your submission, please contact the Scrutiny Unit (details on the web page).

How should written evidence be submitted?

Your submission should be emailed to scrutiny@parliament.uk. Please note that submissions sent to the Government department in charge of the Bill will not be treated as evidence to the Public Bill Committee. Submissions should be in the form of a Word document. A summary should be provided. Paragraphs should be numbered, but there should be no page numbering.

Essential statistics or further details can be added as annexes, which should also be numbered. To make publication easier, please avoid the use of coloured graphs, complex diagrams or pictures. As a guideline, submissions should not exceed 3,000 words.

Please include in the covering email the name, address, telephone number and email address of the person responsible for the submission. The submission should be dated.

What will happen to my evidence?

The written evidence will be circulated to all Committee Members to inform their consideration of the Bill.

Most submissions will also be published on the internet as soon as possible after the Committee has started sitting.

There may well be other clauses in the Bill you’d like to address, but for Researching Reform, Clause 29 is a priority. Whilst the Lords have tried their best to encourage the government to remove this Clause, they have this week confirmed their intention to keep it (though they’ve suggested the Clause will be edited in some way). Child welfare organisations and lawyers are equally concerned about this Clause, and an official statement from the Magistrates Association also expresses concerns.

Whether you agree with this Clause or not, or have thoughts and ideas about any of the other clauses within the Children and Social Work Bill, Public Bill Committees are a powerful way to help inform and shape our laws and so we would urge anyone with an interest in this Bill to make a submission. Good luck.

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Interesting Bills Making Their Way Through Parliament

30 Thursday Jun 2016

Posted by in Bills, child welfare, Civil Partnerships, Domestic Violence, Family Law, Marriage, Researching Reform

≈ 5 Comments

We’ve just spotted some very interesting new Bills going through Parliament at the moment, many of which focus on children and families, and thought we would share them with you.

First up is the Registration of Marriage Bill, which has been put forward by a group of Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem politicians. There is no text for the Bill available yet, so it’s not clear what the Bill seeks to achieve, but we did wonder whether it had anything to do with the excellent Equal Civil Partnerships movement, which seeks to make civil marriages available to opposite sex couples (it is currently only available to same sex couples). The Bill had its first reading yesterday, and will hold the next reading on 21st October. We have emailed the Bill’s sponsor to ask for a copy of the Bill and will publish the text once we get permission.

The next piece of proposed legislation which caught our eye was the Child Poverty In The UK (Target For Reduction) Bill, which as the name suggests aims to establish targets for reducing child poverty and ensure the publication of reports to track target progress. This Bill also had its first reading yesterday. It was proposed by Dan Jarvis MP, who has been in the news today as a potential candidate for the Labour Leadership.  The Bill will have its second reading in 2017.

Related by theme to the Child Poverty Bill is the Families with Children and Young People in Debt (Respite) Bill.  This proposed piece of law, put forward by Kelly Tolhurst MP, wants to establish a duty on lenders and creditors to provide periods of financial respite for families with children and young people in debt under certain circumstances and to place a duty on public authorities to provide access to related advice, guidance and support in this context. Its first reading, like all the Bills in this post, was held on 29th June, 2016. The next reading for this Bill will be held on 28th October, 2016.

Moving on to the equally concerning topic of Domestic Violence, the Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Bill seeks to require the United Kingdom to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (the Istanbul Convention – Apparently everyone is ratifying it but us….). The Bill was proposed by Dr Eilidh Whiteford, and will have its second reading on 16th December, 2016.

Next is the Sexual Offences (Pardons Etc.) Bill, which would like to make provision for the pardoning or setting aside, of cautions and convictions for specified sexual offences that have now been abolished. There is no text yet available for this Bill but is likely to relate to same sex intimacy which is thankfully no longer prohibited in law. The sponsor of this Bill is John Nicolson MP, who publicly announced he was gay in 1999. It is also interesting to note that Sir Keir Starmer, former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and former Head of the Crown Prosecution Service is also backing this Bill. Keir is currently the Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras. The Bill’s second reading is scheduled for 21st October, 2016.

And finally, we have the Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Bill, which similarly looks to address same sex relationships, and crucially, amend the law so that same sex intimacy can no longer be grounds for discharge within the army or navy. We are not experts in this area of law, however we have a feeling this Bill is simply tidying up this legislation in line with the current policy on the ground within military organisations in the UK. At least, we very much hope that’s the case. Regardless, it’s a welcome amendment. This Bill was sponsored by John Glen MP, and will have its second reading at the start of 2017.

The only thing left to note is that all the proposals above are made within Private Members’ Bills and that whilst these Bills very rarely make law, with public support they can sometimes go on to be ratified and implemented.

Which of these Bills would you support?

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Justice Committee: Bill Of Rights Will Damage The UK

09 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Bills, child welfare, Human Rights, Researching Reform

≈ 7 Comments

In their latest report, The Justice Committee has launched a withering attack on the Government’s proposal to introduce a UK Bill of Rights designed to replace The Human Rights Act.

In a formal statement on Parliament’s website, it has concluded that the evidence received made ‘a forceful case’ for the Government to think again on the policy.

The Sub-Committee’s key findings were as follows:

  • The Government’s proposals will not depart significantly from the existing Human Rights Act.
  • The proposals are likely to “affirm” in a Bill of Rights all the rights contained within European Convention on Human Rights [as Stated by the Secretary of State], making the necessity of a Bill of Rights unclear.
  • These proposals may damage the UK’s standing within the Council of Europe and the EU, and its moral authority internationally;
  • And may, lead to an increasing reliance on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in UK courts if the scope of the Human Rights Act is reduced.
  • What is being proposed may also risk constitutional upheaval with the devolved nations, with the consequence that the proposed UK Bill of Rights could end up as an English Bill of Rights.

Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws, Chairman of the House of Lords EU Justice Sub-Committee, said:

“Our evidence from the Secretary of State for Justice was the first time the Government has explained why it wants to introduce a British Bill of Rights. The arguments seemed to amount to restoring national faith in human rights and to give human rights a greater UK identity. The proposals he outlined were not extensive, and we were not convinced that a Bill of Rights was necessary.

“Many witnesses thought that restricting the scope of the Human Rights Act would lead to an increase in reliance on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in UK courts, which has stronger enforcement mechanisms. This seemed to be a perverse consequence of a Bill of Rights intended to give human rights greater UK identity

“We heard evidence that the devolved administrations have serious concerns about the plans to repeal the Human Rights Act. If the devolved Parliaments withheld their consent to a British Bill of Rights it might very well end up as an English Bill of Rights, not something we think the Government would want to see.

“The more evidence we heard on this issue the more convinced we became that the Government should think again about its proposals for a British Bill of Rights. The time is now right for it to do so.”

If you’d like to read the report and other related information, we’ve added links below:

The Human Rights Act has been instrumental in protecting children since its inception, and has become a significant piece of law used by family lawyers in the UK.

humanrights

Vulnerable Girls to be Protected From FGM

20 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by in Bills, Children

≈ 3 Comments

The government has today unveiled plans to create new laws to help protect girls from Female Genital Mutilation.

The Gov.UK website tells us:

“Proposals being put forward in the Serious Crime Bill include a new civil protection order which would protect victims or potential victims of FGM. This could include, for example, a requirement for a passport to be surrendered to prevent a girl being taken abroad for FGM.”

The site also tells us that victims, potential victims or third parties like teachers, friends, carers and social workers will be able to apply to the court for an order if they believe there is a real risk of FGM taking place.

The government is also going to create a new law which will turn failing to protect a girl from FGM into an offence. The press release tells us:

“Anyone who has parental responsibility for a girl who has been mutilated when she was under 16, and is in frequent contact with her, or who has assumed responsibility for such a girl, will be potentially liable if they knew, or ought to have known, that there was a significant risk of FGM being carried out, but did not take reasonable steps to prevent it from happening.”

The government is also going to grant FGM victims lifelong anonymity from the time the allegation is made to encourage victims to come forward.

Justice Minister Mike Penning said:

FGM is child abuse and the government is committed to tackling and preventing this harmful and unacceptable practice.

We are introducing an unprecedented package of measures to strengthen protection for victims, encourage them to report the crime to the police and get support. We also want to prosecute those who knowingly let this terrible abuse happen to children they are responsible for.

We know that legislation alone cannot eradicate this unacceptable practice. But it is important that we change the law where necessary.

New Law In Tennessee Criminalising Pregnant Women

25 Wednesday Jun 2014

Posted by in Bills, Children

≈ 4 Comments

It beggars belief, but a new law just approved by the General Assembly will mean that women who either lose their babies during pregnancy or give birth to babies with defects could be charged with assault. The law will be implemented in Tennessee, USA.

Senate Bill 1391 is intended to deal with the issue of narcotic addiction during pregnancy, and as Social Work Helper explains, looks to tackle Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, which is where a newborn is exposed to addictive illegal or prescription drugs in the womb. As you might imagine, babies who have been exposed to such chemicals can be born with health problems, or die prematurely as a result.

The relevant Section of the Bill, Section 4, states:

“…nothing in the section shall preclude prosecution of a woman for an assaultive offense for the illegal use of a narcotic drug while pregnant, if her child is born addicted to or harmed by the narcotic drugs or for criminal homicide if her child dies as a result of her illegal use of a narcotic drug taken while pregnant.”

You can see where the Bill is coming from, but we already know that criminalising vulnerable people doesn’t work and won’t solve the core issues within these cases.

Social Work Helper claims that the Bill is a way to get mothers into treatment – by pressurising them into getting help in order to avoid prosecution. They also point out that much like our system, imprisoning women in this situation, many of whom will already be mothers to other children and perhaps also the main breadwinner in the family, will only lead to bleaker outcomes for these women, and countless children caught up in the process.

More worryingly is the suggestion that there is no evidence base for this Bill, that it may pressurise women into having abortions and that it may end up targeting ethnic minorities, too.

If ever there was a time for the world to review its legal systems, in all their ‘gory’, it is now.

Child Maltreatment Bill – Is It Over?

03 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by in Bills, Children, Family Law, Update

≈ 3 Comments

The Child Maltreatment Bill, which was drafted to create provisions for the emotional and physical welfare of children (a rather opaque definition by anyone’s standards), appears to be on the verge of collapse.

The Bill was due to be moved for debate on 28th February, but this in fact did not happen. Parliament’s website tells us that there is no indication as to when this Bill might progress further.

It’s not a Bill we back; we happen to think it’s lacking and dangerously thin on detail, so you’ll perhaps forgive us for breathing a sigh of relief, for now.

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