UK Parliament / Open data

Child Poverty Bill

Proceeding contribution from Lord Freud (Conservative) in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 19 January 2010. It occurred during Debate on bills and Committee proceeding on Child Poverty Bill.
I thank the Minister for giving way. It is possible to view the amendment as rather cynical, just replacing an easier target with a tougher target—the 2.9 million with the 4 million—but it is also possible to look at it in a more qualitative way. It is an attempt to consider another dimension: housing deprivation. If I am straying slightly from the specific words of the amendment, I hope that noble Lords will forgive me. My point is that, if housing deprivation is desperately important, which it is, and this is of value as a measure, it would be possible to devise such a measure with a different threshold or median percentage, so that we are looking not at an inconsistent target—the £19 billion would not necessarily change—but at ensuring that the children whom we are capturing are the more appropriate ones, so that we are capturing something valuable. Whether or not that point is within the letter of the amendment, I would be interested in the Minister’s thoughts and response.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
716 c144GC 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
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