Child Poverty Bill

I thank the noble Lord. I understand his concerns about the establishment of a new advisory body and its associated costs. However, I cannot let the noble Lord get away with saying that these bodies have increased under this Government. I remind him that there has been a 6.7 per cent reduction in the number of non-departmental advisory public bodies since 1997. Amendment 25 would provide for payments made to members of the commission to be published online each month. Expenditure on this new advisory body must represent real value for money. Here, I very much agree with the noble Lord, Lord Freud. Once established, the Child Poverty Commission will be a public body. As such, it will have to comply with all parliamentary rules on managing public money. This means that it must deliver value for money for the taxpayer at all times. In accordance with the Cabinet Office publication Public Bodies: A Guide for Departments, which is relevant to an advisory body of this nature, we will set out the total costs of the commission in an annual report to Parliament by the sponsoring department. This report will be laid in the Libraries of the Houses. It is also worth noting that members of the commission, or their employers, will be provided with no more recompense than is sufficient to ensure that their service does not leave them out of pocket. We are determined that this body will offer value for money. With those assurances, I invite the noble Lord to withdraw his amendment.