Child Poverty Bill

I thank the Minister for his reply and all noble Lords who have contributed to the debate. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, for outlining the Office of Public Appointments procedure, which I am well aware of. Indeed, I have been in contact with that office myself. It is an excellent procedure, and I must compliment the Government for introducing it; it makes the whole business of public appointments a lot more credible with the general public. I am suggesting not interfering with or replacing it but putting something on top of it, just for the chairperson: a confirmation hearing by Parliament, in whatever way Parliament decided. It probably would be the Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families, which has the opportunity, as the noble Lord, Lord Freud, said, to have a confirmation hearing for the Children’s Commissioner—not that the Secretary of State took any notice of that. That is what I would like to see. If there are 60 appointments considered worthy of such a procedure, I suggest that the chair of the commission that advises the Government on the spending of millions of pounds to take hundreds of thousands—even millions—of children out of poverty is certainly as important as many of the appointments that are going through the pilot scheme for confirmation appointments. This is a matter of transparency, public confidence and strengthening the power of Parliament. Over the past two Governments, the Executive has taken a great deal of power to itself, and we would like to see Parliament being able to rear its head and have a little more say in these important matters. Far from "lowering the lines of accountability", in the Minister’s phrase, it would raise the level of accountability to have a pre-appointment hearing for the chairman because Parliament is the most accountable body in the whole country. However, I am grateful to the Minister for unexpectedly saying that he will consider the possibility of Amendment 20, and I look forward to hearing between now and Report whether he is going to bring forward a government amendment or whether he would like me to do that and add his name to it, which I am grateful that he did to my other amendments. It would add to public confidence that this was an independent organisation if we were at least able to get that. For now, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 19 withdrawn. Amendments 20 and 21 not moved.