Peers pick up the mantle on BASW’s age assessment amendments
The government’s Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill has reached the House of Lords, where Peers are preparing to judge and possibly change the proposed legislation.
Throughout the Bill’s journey in the Commons, BASW urged MPs to table amendments that created a fairer, more human process for assessing age. This included abolishing the controversial National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) and use of scientific methods of age assessment.
We made the case that age assessment should be undertaken by in a Merton-compliant, holistic way led by social workers in local authorities. This point was recently reiterated in parliament by Shockat Adam MP.
The government remains resistant to these changes, but the campaign now moves to the Lords, where we are briefing Peers to quiz Ministers on our asks. In particular, we were grateful to Baroness Lister for highlighting our strong reservations around the NAAB in the opening debate on Monday.
Since then, a number of amendments have already been put forward in advance of committee stage following our efforts and those of partner organisations.
- Mandatory referral for age assessment in criminal proceedings
- Repeal of the NAAB and scientific methods of age assessment
- Age and safeguarding assessments at the port of entry
- Age assessments for immigration control purposes
It is heartening to see support across the political spectrum for our campaign, which were crucial asks in our Manifesto for Social Work ahead of last year’s General Election.
We now need to move the dial further and persuade the government to adopt these measures sooner rather than later.
