Queen’s Speech

My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for his introduction of today’s subjects. In particular, he strayed beyond the brief of health. He emphasised, along with the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, the way in which we need to keep our direction clear through this debate so that it does not become a mingle-mangle, but provides a series of packages which come together to support and encourage those in most need in our society. Within that context, I want to make a point about the proposed education Bill and then move on to issues of poverty and welfare. Like the noble Baronesses, Lady Massey and Lady Walmsley, I welcome the emphasis on quality of education for young offenders to be proposed in the Bill. In principle I agree with both noble Baronesses in their support of the proposal to move this education provision over to local authorities. My fear, however, is that it will be underfunded and that because it is hidden away from the general population of those local authorities, not much pressure will be put on them actually to achieve the aims that are to be expressed in the Bill. I hope that there will be particular expression of the ways in which we can provide support and encouragement for young offenders. My own experience from visits to our local YOIs at Deerbolt near Barnard Castle and Wetherby reinforces my awareness of how young offenders suffer from interrupted and occasional education, but also of the opportunities that those institutions could provide for skilled and inspirational teaching which could make a real difference to the future prospects of these individuals, as well as keeping them out of prison in the future. The emphasis in the Bill on 16 to 19 education could provide the basis for very significant improvements in this area, but that education needs to be appropriate to the young offenders themselves. The tragic story of the Barbed project at HMP Coldingley, where the graphic design studio sponsored by the Howard League for Penal Reform has now been closed, while not coming from a YOI experience, gives little confidence that there is enough flexibility in the prison estate and the prison system to fulfil educational and apprenticeship aims. When the Bill emerges, I look forward to seeing not just how those aims are expressed, but also how they are to be enforced and achieved. I welcome the proposed child poverty Bill and the intention to enshrine in law the duty to eradicate child poverty by 2020. Like the noble Baroness, Lady Massey, I would like reassurance that this will include the commitment to halving child poverty by 2010. I welcome, too, the ways in which children will be helped by bringing forward rises in child benefit and child tax credits, as well as the beneficial effect of the cut in VAT on the lives of those in most need. However, we must be aware of the possible implications of the proposed welfare reform legislation: the answer to child poverty is to force people into work of whatever description. Some 57 per cent of poor households have someone at work within them, and that percentage is rising. For too many families, a move into work does not mean a move out of poverty. We need to beware the impact of working antisocial hours on those on low incomes and on their families. Moving 300,000 lone parents into employment will not in itself reduce poverty. I hope that the Government will take this opportunity to affirm their support for family life as part of the support for children and children in poverty, and that nothing in this package of legislation will be detrimental to that aim. It is significant that according to the National Centre for Social Research, workers contracted to work unsocial hours tend to be lower skilled and lower paid. Some 38 per cent of people with no qualifications work at the weekend compared with 15 per cent of those educated to degree level. In opening the debate the Minister spoke of the need for the talents of the whole population to be used in support of the country and our national economy. I hope that the Government will reaffirm that the talents expressed as a parent and the skills used in family life are among the talents that must not be wasted. I believe that the Government are right to assert that work is an important part of our contribution to society and of our fulfilment of ourselves as individuals. That work needs to be sustainable and adequately paid if it is to fulfil the needs both of society and the individuals concerned, and if it is to bring families, and therefore children, out of poverty. In this respect, we must take care not to separate child poverty from all human poverty. I should like the Government to reaffirm their commitment to eradicating all poverty and social exclusion in our society. We need fiscal changes in order to bring children out of poverty, and I welcome the moves towards them. We also need support for the strengthening of family relationships and in particular of the bond of marriage. The strength of the marriage relationship may at times be derided today, but from this Bench I remind noble Lords of our continued contention that the weakening of marriage has serious implications for the mutual belonging and care that is exercised within the community at large and which is crucial to both welfare reform and the eradication of child poverty—as well as to the whole way in which our society regards children, a point described so eloquently by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley. In this context, our support for marriage and for mature relationships in the upbringing of children is itself a response to the need to eradicate child poverty. I welcome the aim and I look forward to the introduction of fiscal measures to achieve it and to the support of family relationships in order to provide security and encouragement for all our growing children.