A round up of news from the Law Centre's policy unit

Bamford Review of Mental Health & Learning Disability

The Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability draws to a close with the publication of its final two reports. The Report of the PSI Group - Consultation on Promoting the Social Inclusion of People with a Mental Health Problem or a Learning Disability (available at www.rmhldni.gov.uk/index/report consultations.htm) explores the stig-matisation of those with mental health and learning disability issues in Northern Ireland. Particular focus is given to the issues of health, education, employment, poverty and housing need. The Report recommends the establishment of an inter-Departmental Group to take forward the key recommendations from the PSI Report.

Careful consideration needs to be given to the remit of the inter-Departmental Group, including consideration of how it will engage with user groups and other groups within the community and voluntary sector. In driving forward the PSI Report’s recommendations, the group needs to develop a clear strategy based on sound indicators of progress in relation to the social inclusion of those with mental health and learning disabilities and an action plan with firm and measurable targets. The Law Centre’s comments on the PSI report are available on our website.

The last paper to be produced by the Review is on proposals for a radical overhaul of mental health law in Northern Ireland. A Comprehensive Legislative Framework was published in February (www.rmhldni.gov.uk/index/report-consultations.htm) and was the subject of a seminar jointly hosted by the Law Centre and the Bamford Review on 1 March.

Following a presentation on the main proposals for law reform in Northern Ireland by Dr Maria McGinnity of the Bamford Review Team, speakers from Scotland and England outlined lessons for Northern Ireland from the relatively recent reform of mental health law in those jurisdictions and highlighted particular issues for attention in the Northern Ireland context. Professor Phil Fennell from Cardiff Law School spoke about the importance of maintaining a balance between three agendas in the context of mental health reform: the rights agenda; the public safety agenda and the anti-stigmatisation agenda. Eileen Davie, President of the Scottish Mental Health Tribunal stressed the importance of establishing a clear principles base for new mental health legislation and shared her experience of the operation of the Scottish Tribunal’s extensive powers.

The Bamford proposals would bring significant change to the existing law on mental health in Northern Ireland (see feature article on page 16). The consultation will run until 27 April. The Law Centre’s response will be available on our website.
As the Review moves into the implementation stage, the Law Centre will monitor progress and will host a seminar to mark World Mental Health Day on 10 October on the theme of ‘Bamford + 1’ to assess how the Review’s recommendations have been implemented one year after the publication of the Review’s Final Report.

UK Borders Bill (2007)

The UK Borders Bill (2007) has now cleared the House of Commons and will be considered in the House of Lords after the Easter recess (www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills/200607/uk_borders.htm). As originally introduced, the Bill proposes wide-ranging powers for immigration officials and the introduction of the use of biometric data for immigration and ‘other’ purposes not necessarily related to immigration.

The Bill purports to give police-type powers to immigration officials without provision for corresponding checks and balances and oversight accountability mechanisms and without appropriate provisions to ensure proper training in the use of such powers (see feature on here).

The Bill has attracted widespread criticism from immigration practitioners, civil liberties groups and other non-governmental organisations working in the field of immigration law. The amended Bill which is now before the Lords provides for the establishment of a Chief Inspector of the Border and Immigration Agency.

North–South Immigration Forum

The next meeting of the North-South Immigration Forum is scheduled for June. At the inaugural meeting hosted by the Law Centre in January, practitioners and policy officers from a range of non-governmental organisations in both jurisdictions came together to discuss the law and practice in relation to the needs of unaccompanied children and separated families.

The NGO sector was joined in the afternoon by representatives from statutory agencies, including the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, to hear presentations by speakers from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Ireland and the UK on the relevant international law and on good practice in dealing with children within the immigration system. Representatives of the UNHCR in the UK will return to Northern Ireland to provide inter-agency training on unaccompanied minors and separated families in the spring.

Meanwhile, the Home Office is inviting comments on its proposals for support for unaccompanied asylum seeking children. Comments are invited by 31 May (consultation document is available at www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk/6353/6356/17715/uasc.pdf). The Law Centre is preparing a response. The next meeting of the Forum will explore recent proposals for the major overhaul of immigration law in both jurisdictions: the UK Borders Bill and the Irish Immigration, Residence and Protection Bill.

Council of Europe Advisory Committee on Framework Convention

The Advisory Committee of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on National Minorities visited Belfast recently to take evidence from a number of organisations on how the UK is meeting its obligations under the Convention. The Convention came into force in 1998 and was ratified by the UK in the same year. Under Article 4 of the Convention, the state is obliged to adopt necessary measures to promote full and effective equality between persons belonging to a national minority in all areas of economic, social, political and cultural life. Article 15 requires states to ensure the right to effective participation by national minorities in all areas of economic, social, cultural and public life, particularly in those areas affecting them.

The Convention requires the UK government to submit a periodic report to the Advisory Committee which monitors compliance with the terms of the Convention. The UK submitted its second report on measures it has taken to fulfil its responsibilities under the Convention to the Advisory Committee in February 2007.

The Law Centre gave evidence about the impact of the lack of social protection for migrant workers in Northern Ireland, particularly in cases where they lose their employment. We also raised the impact of the lack of an immigration enquiry office in Northern Ireland and the exclusion of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) from the remit of the Section 75 statutory equality duty because of the UK’s failure to designate IND as a public authority under the Northern Ireland Act (1998). IND's work in Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of the UK, is not covered by the equality duty contained in the Race Equality Amendment Act 2000. The Law Centre recommended that the Committee explore these issues with the government in its evaluation of the UK’s report. The Committee were particularly urged to encourage the UK to reconsider its policy in relation to the gaps in social protection for migrant workers. A copy of the Law Centre’s report to the Committee will be available on the Law Centre’s website.

Review of Grievance Procedure

Last December, the government announced that it intended to review the operation of the statutory dispute resolution rules introduced in GB in 2004 and in NI in 2005. The Gibbons Review, A Review of Employment Dispute Resolution in GB, reported in March and the Department for Trade and Industry has now issued a consultation on taking forward the Review’s recommendations. Principal amongst these is that consideration should be given to the repeal of the statutory dispute resolution procedures and to the production of clear guidelines on the early resolution of grievances in the workplace. The Department of Employment and Learning will consult on similar proposals for Northern Ireland. Submissions can be made to the DTI consultation until 20 June (details available at www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/page 38508.html)

Update on Welfare Reform

The Welfare Reform Bill makes its final passage through the House of Lords with some amendments (www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills/200607/welfare_reform.htm). Meanwhile, the Freud Review into the future of welfare reform was published in March to much criticism from the advice and community and voluntary sectors (Reducing Dependency, Increasing Opportunity: Options for the Future of Welfare to Work). The Review was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in December 2006 to review progress on the Welfare to Work Programme since 1997 and to make policy recommendations on how the government can meet its 80 per cent employment aspiration (see editorial on page 4). The government has now set out a timetable for consulting on the recommendations in the Review and responses may be submitted to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Child Support

Law Centre (NI) submitted a response to the government’s White Paper on Child Support. This followed our earlier comments on the Henshaw Report. The White Paper makes some useful proposals, including to increase parental choice in making maintenance arrangements by removing the requirement that people on benefits use the CSA mechanism, to increase the extent to which Child Support is disregarded in income-related benefits and to improve support services to parents.

Government figures suggest that maintenance payments currently keep around 100,000 children out of poverty and in its response to the Freud Review and to the 2006 Harker Report on Child Poverty, the government has announced that from 2010 to 2011, it will significantly increase the amount of maintenance that all parents with care on benefit can keep before it affects the level of benefits they receive.

Northern Ireland Funding Code

The Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission (NILSC) has recently completed its consultation on proposals for a Northern Ireland Funding Code which will regulate the conditions for awarding civil legal aid. The Funding Code proposes giving high priority to social welfare cases and wider public interest cases, including cases alleging a breach of human rights. Funding for public interest cases would be considered by a Public Interest Advisory Panel, chaired by a NILSC member and including people from outside the Commission with knowledge of public interest litigation or expertise in relevant areas of law.

Interested to find out more?

For further details of any of the issues highlighted in this section, contact the Law Centre Policy Unit, 028 9024 4401.

Ursula O'Hare