When you utter the phrase Section 9 there are few in the social care sector who don't know what you are talking about. The government's twisted policy, under which failed asylum seekers who refuse to return home can have their children taken into care, has become infamous for taking asylum laws to an even lower depth.
But when you ask people if they know what has happened to the evaluation of the policy commissioned by the Home Office you are met with blank faces.
Speaking in front of the Joint Committee in Human Rights in February immigration minister Liam Byrne acknowledged that the evaluation had been completed 18 months beforehand but had still not been published. He said that this was his fault as he wanted to "test" its conclusions "a bit further" for himself.
Four months down the line from these comments and a dispicable two and a half years after the piloting of the law began (it started on December 1 2004) there is still no sign of the evaluation and as result no decision on the policy.
All the time the government delays making a decision the 116 affected families willl continue to suffer, either having been separated from their children or together at the mercy of council's goodwill.
If Gordon Brown really does believe in the government mantra of Every Child Matters one of his first jobs in office should be to abolish this immoral legislation and end the suffering.