Part 4: Age Assessment Section 53: Regulations about Age Assessments
Overview: The purpose of this section is to provide the Secretary of State the power to make regulations about the way in which age assessments are conducted under sections 50 and 51.
	Background: Where there is doubt about whether a person claiming to be under 18 years old is an adult or a child, they are temporarily treated as a child until further consideration of their age is undertaken and they are referred into the care of local authority children’s services. Local authority social workers will usually proceed to conduct a holistic age assessment, known as a Merton assessment. As a result, local authorities currently carry the burden of conducting these age assessments on individuals subject to immigration control. The outcomes of these assessments are assigned significant weight by the Secretary of State when making its decision on age for immigration purposes. Merton assessments must adhere to a set of standards that have been set out by the courts in a series of judgments that have considered age disputes. Merton assessments typically involve an interview or series of interviews between the age-disputed person and two appropriately qualified social workers.
	In addition to caselaw, best practice guidance has also been issued which provides further assistance to those conducting age assessments. Therefore, local authorities are required to rely on the body of caselaw and the best available guidance to approach the task of age assessment. The absence of a more prescribed manner to conduct these age assessments has inevitably meant that the way in which local authorities approach this task can vary – in turn this leads to variance in how age is assigned for immigration purposes.
	The intention of this section is to allow the Secretary of State the power to provide more clarity on what an age assessment should entail, including where appropriate, existing elements of age assessment caselaw.
	This section confers a specific power on the Secretary of State to make regulations on the process of conducting age assessments on age-disputed persons
	Subsection 1 provides that the Secretary of State may make regulations about age assessments carried out by local authorities and designated persons (officials of the Secretary of State) conducted under section 50 or section 51. Regulations may make provision for the processes to be followed, the necessary qualifications and experience of the person conducting the age assessment (including those conducting scientific methods of age assessment), the content and distribution of age assessment reports, how decisions and appeal rights should be communicated to the age-disputed person and the consequences of a lack of co-operation by the age-disputed person.
	Subsection 2 provides that the Secretary of State may make further provision about the referral process by a local authority of an age-disputed person, how and when a local authority must inform the Secretary of State of the outcome of its age assessment decision and the evidence the Secretary of State may require when a local authority conducts an assessment itself or accepts the claimed age of the individual.
	Subsection 3 provides that regulations made under the section are subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. This means that any regulations made by the Secretary of State must be approved by both Houses of Parliament before coming into law