Baroness Berridge (Con)

My Lords, I rise to support the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Butler-Sloss, on Amendment 9. I know that there are other amendments in relation to the inclusion of parents and guardians. I raise just two small points in relation to this. When one looks at where this amendment is inserted in the list, the last of the persons currently listed who would receive the report is “the local authority in whose area the patient is ordinarily resident”. That potentially will not always be the local authority where there is a care order. Therefore, in those circumstances, the local authority is caught with an “other person who has parental responsibility”. However, that is not how this is drafted in other parts of the Bill, where an “other person who has parental responsibilities” means guardians et cetera. For consistency of drafting, we need to look at that. I know that the Minister has been very generous in the time that we have had with her and her officials, but we need a consistent phraseology within the Bill because with this amendment, if there was a special guardian the report would also go to the person with what is informally known as residual parental responsibility. Normally they are informed only, for instance, of the change of name of the child or if the child is going to leave the jurisdiction. We need to look at everybody with parental responsibility and have some consistent phraseology within the Bill when we are meaning the local authority when there is a care order and parental responsibility, to include all the different circumstances in which a child may have their status changed from the ordinary situation of living at home with parents when a court order is in place.