Child Poverty Bill

I should like to thank the noble Baroness for that clarification. The simple point that I would make is that the attitude of the public and the media towards this institution is now very different to how it was a few years ago, for obvious reasons, which I shall not rehearse as it is too painful. That context of giving Parliament the chance to scrutinise the appointment allows for public reassurance as to the credentials of any appointment. The rejection of this point by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in another place was on puzzling grounds. She stated that pre-appointment hearings should focus only on posts where there is a strong public and parliamentary interest. Surely, the whole point of this Bill is to ensure that strong public and parliamentary interest in the reduction of child poverty is sustained over the next 10 years. So I would welcome clarification from the Minister on just how wedded to the first or second model the Government are. Let me go on to Amendment 21, which is grouped with this one and which was tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, on the appointment of the deputy chair. Some disagreement among members is in the nature of bodies of this type and I do not think that such disagreement is harmful. In fact, I would welcome evidence of ongoing debate about new ideas. But at some point, the disagreement will have to be resolved and the advice of the commission given. The method of appointment suggested by the noble Baroness would make the minority view more likely to be heard. Having both the chair and the deputy appointed by the Secretary of State could lead to an unnecessary degree of uniformity within the body. Finally, while we are discussing appointments, I would like to take this opportunity to ask a few practical questions. First, how large do the Government expect the final commission to be? In the Bill there is no upper limit at present. Secondly, we already have the Children's Commissioner whose job it is to promote the interests of children. How does that position and role fit with the role and position of the commission? I would also be interested to know whether the Government have given any thought to who might be a good fit for the position of chairman of the commission and how far the process is along in drawing up the job description and putting out feelers for potential applicants.