Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I thank both the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, and the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, for their support for this amendment. I also thank the Minister for his reply. It is the right way round to make sure that primary school children have any extra free school meals that are going, so that good health and eating habits are laid down when they are young. However, what is significant is the research that has been done—the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, mentioned it—that showed a statistically significant improvement in the exam results of children who had had a nutritious meal in the middle of the day. That is extremely important. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hollis, for her new take on the problem and for her points about lone parents and the fact that families with older children are those most in poverty. That is an important point. Will the Minister make sure that the DWP reminds local authorities that there is a possibility of using the Future Jobs Fund to train staff for important, flexible part-time local jobs? Eventually, we could kill a lot of birds with one stone. I was glad to hear that rolling this out for secondary school children would not need more primary legislation. That is important. I am sure that the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, will read the debate before Report and we will study it to see whether we should bring the matter back. In the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 33A withdrawn. Amendment 34 not moved. Amendment 35 Moved by