National Preventive Mechanism Annual Report 2009–10 Children’s Commissioner E stablished by the Children Act 2004, the role of the Children’s Commissioner is to promote awareness of the views and interests of children in England28 among, for example, those working with children and the government. The Commissioner’s remit covers all children up to the age of 18, or those up to the age of 21 if they have a learning disability or if they have been in the care of the state at any time since the age of 16. Within this broad remit, the Commissioner is to have particular regard to those children who do not have other adequate means by which they can make their views known. The Commissioner is supported by a Deputy Commissioner who is also the chief executive of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC), an office comprising 25 staff, many of whom use the Commissioner’s delegated powers to carry out their work. These powers include the right to enter any premises, except a private dwelling, for the purpose of interviewing any child accommodated or cared for there. With the child’s consent, the Commissioner may interview the child in private. Those exercising statutory duties, such as a secure accommodation facility, young offender’s institution or immigration detention centre, must also supply the Commissioner with any information that she may reasonably request. In addition, where the OCC publishes a report with recommendations relating to those exercising statutory duties, they are required to respond in writing, stating what action is being or will be taken to address the recommendations made. OPCAT compliance The OCC does not carry out a regular programme of visits as required by OPCAT, but instead benefits from a very broad power to enter premises where children may be detained. This remit and accompanying set of powers is used on a regular basis to inform the OCC’s work. The OCC’s focus on the views and interests of children is useful given that they are potentially a particularly vulnerable group of detainees. OCC reports may therefore highlight or uncover issues that may otherwise not be noted by other organisations. Of particular note is the Commissioner’s duty to have regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in her work, in line with Article 19(b) of OPCAT.29 Summary of activities and key issues A key issue for the OCC is the detention of children for the purpose of immigration control. The majority of such children are detained in Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre in England, a facility visited by the OCC three times in four years due to concerns about their treatment. In May 2009, the OCC published a report following one such visit,30 the purpose of which was to examine the provision and conditions at the centre and to hear from children and their families about their experiences of the detention process. The OCC identified several areas of concern during the visit, not least the fact of detention itself. It felt that depriving children of their liberty for administrative purposes was never likely to be in their best interests 28 The Commissioner also has a role in promoting the awareness of the views and interests of children in the rest of the UK in relation to non-devolved matters (such as immigration issues or, in relation to Wales only, youth justice). 29 Article 19(b) requires NPMs to take into consideration “the relevant norms of the United Nations.” 30 Children’s Commissioner, The arrest and detention of children subject to immigration control: a report following the Children’s Commissioner for England’s visit to Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre (2009). 36