Child Poverty Bill

Yes, we are trying to amend the Bill by the addition of some targets. Measurement is clearly important, but the risk is that the measures, being purely financial, drive state intervention in a particular direction. As we all know, targets tend to drive bureaucracies—they get bedded in. We want a better balance of targets. We want to see targets that look to the causes of poverty, not only to the measures of poverty. We have not completely written off the dialogue of the process of Committee and Report, where we may be able to discuss these matters and get to some agreement. It is rather premature to think about further progress after the Bill; a politician would not hand over defeat at this stage. Let us see how we go through this process.