Deprivation/Child Poverty

I reassure the hon. Gentleman that there is no slackening of our focus on the relative poverty measure, defined as those living in households below 60 per cent. of median income. However, the EUROSTAT database changed in 2005 from households with below average income to a general household resources survey, so it is difficult to make valid comparisons in the case to which the hon. Gentleman refers between different European countries. It is important that we should be able to make those comparisons internationally, which is one advantage of the 60 per cent. measure before housing costs in the case of child poverty, because that is the widely accepted definition and allows us to keep close track of how we are getting on compared with other countries.