Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, this is a common-sense amendment to ensure that the limited resources of the commission are not wasted on duplication but instead are targeted on improving the sum of knowledge available to us. We have already discussed the limitations of the data on which government measures are to be based, and I look forward to the meeting with the Ministers and their officials which I was offered last Tuesday. In requesting additional research, the commission could play an important role in plugging the gaps. Of course, the effectiveness of the power given in paragraph 10 depends not only on the funding made available to the commission but on the willingness of the Secretary of State to allow such research. I want to confirm the meaning of paragraph 10. Is it saying that the Secretary of State can choose whether to comply not only with a request that the Government carry out research but with a request that the commission may ask another for some work? Must the commission ask for permission before requesting a third party to undertake some research for it? Allowing the Secretary of State to veto any independent research will surely limit the ability of the commission to provide effective independent scrutiny. I beg to move.