This Library Note provides background reading for the debate on looked-after children on 25 October.
Debate on 25 October: Looked-after Children (415 KB , PDF)
This Library Note provides background reading for the debate to be held on Thursday 25 October: “the standards of service for looked-after children and, in particular, the Government’s response to changes in residential childcare in the light of recent child protection failures”. It considers recent analysis of the standards of service received by looked-after children and what measures have been undertaken to improve these standards. It also considers what inadequacies might be identified in the provision of care for looked-after children in residential settings following the prosecution of members of an organised gang based in Rochdale which targeted children in care homes.
Debate on 25 October: Looked-after Children (415 KB , PDF)
The Hares (Closed Season) Bill [HL] would create a closed season during which it would be an offence to intentionally or recklessly kill, injure or take any hare between 1 February to 30 September each year. It would also repeal the Hares Preservation Act 1892.
![Hares (Close Season) Bill [HL]: HL Bill 52 of 2024–25](https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/content/uploads/sites/2/2020/09/Agriculture-and-farming-568x426.png)
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is scheduled for second reading in the House of Lords on 1 May 2025. The bill would make a number of changes to children’s social care and schools.
In October 2024, a House of Lords committee published a post-legislative review of the Modern Slavery Act 2015. The committee argued that the legislation was no longer world-leading. It suggested developments worldwide had led to the UK falling behind internationally and that recent immigration legislation had limited the act’s support infrastructure for victims. It called on government policy to recognise the difference between migrants coming to the UK willingly and victims of trafficking.
