Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Freud, and the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, for tabling the amendments. The noble Baroness confessed that she has form on this in relation to Ofqual. We have noted that. If she is praying that outcome in aid of her position, I might also say that if she is stressing precedence there is no precedent to require the chair of an advisory NDPB to be subject to parliamentary approval before appointment. I can help the noble Lord, Lord Freud, because I understand from his contribution at Second Reading some of his concerns around the issue of progress on establishing the commission. Under an OCPA process that would normally take approximately six months. The noble Lord will understand that the appointment process could not formally begin until after Royal Assent. I am not sure why it should, but if it helps, it seems pretty unlikely that any appointment could be made before a certain event that will face the country in a few weeks’ time.