Labour is proposing to transform the Children’s Commissioner into a Children’s Ombudsman with greater powers than the present set-up, Labour leader Alfred Sant told a press conference this morning.

He said the Children’s Commissioner would hear cases involving children and make recommendations to the government for implementation.

A Labour government would also review the National Children’s Council to ensure there was more active participation by civil society. He said a Labour government would also set up a research centre to examine the situation of Maltese families, in their various forms, so that matters could be improved in the interests of the children.

Outlining various points of the MLP electoral programme, Dr Sant said a Labour government would move amendments to legislation on fostering and adoptions to make those processes more efficient and transparent. The Criminal Code’s provisions on pedophilia would also be improved.

Speaking at a press conference, Dr Sant said a Labour government would work to reduce the contribution which residents in state old people’s homes are obliged to make. Such people currently have 80 percent of their pension deducted, but Labour aimed to gradually reduce this to 65 percent.

Dr Sant said one of Labour’s priorities was to ensure that medicine prices were fair. To this end, apart from new price monitoring mechanisms, it would also review the medicines registration system, to bring down costs. More medicines would be available for free under the national health scheme, while the Pharmacy of your choice scheme would be retained. The 1996 Labour government had itself started working on this scheme, Dr Sant said.

Policies would be drawn up for families having persons with disability, and Labour was proposing that St Luke’s Hospital be converted into a residential institution for persons with a disability, Dr Sant said. This would end the concern of parents who did not know what would happen to their disabled children once parents passed away.