I thank the noble Lord for giving way. This is an important and central point. We are talking about some of the most vulnerable children with the worst outcomes of all children, and therefore this is not an issue one would want to dodge in a Child Poverty Bill. Putting jibes about Christmas trees to one side, this is a really important issue. I would like to request the Minister to ask the relevant department to make a swift, rough and ready assessment—or in the famous words of the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, a "quick and dirty" assessment—preferably before the Report stage, of the expenditure implications of these amendments and whether overall cost savings might be achieved. It could be done on a spreadsheet with a range of assumptions, but we need a basis on which we can look at this. I ask this because my strong instinct suggests that there are very considerable savings to be made, so I would be interested to know what the first instinct of the department is.
Child Poverty Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Freud
(Conservative)
in the House of Lords on Wednesday, 27 January 2010.
It occurred during Debate on bills
and
Committee proceeding on Child Poverty Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
716 c353GC 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
Subjects
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Timestamp
2024-04-22 01:49:00 +0100
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