The amount of money to be spent by the Government on every child in England by the new children's commissioner - 24p - is only a fraction of that being spent in the rest of the UK, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Walmsley has revealed. The commissioner's budget per child is Pounds 3.80 in Northern Ireland, 2.11 in Wales and 98p in Scotland. Speaking during the second reading of the Children Bill in the House of Lords, she said she was 'horrified' by the low sum and added, 'I think English children have a right to the same level of voice as those anywhere else in the UK, and the resources should follow them equally.' Baroness Walmsley said the way to deal with the more than 11 million children and young people who live in England 'may not be to establish the same structures as elsewhere'. She said, 'It would probably make sense to have a set of regional children's commissioners. However, it certainly does not make sense to give an English child only one-fifteenth of that made available to Northern Ireland's children.'
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