Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, Amendments 39 and 58 seek to ensure that both the UK strategy and the annual progress reports give particular consideration to some specified groups of children considered to be particularly vulnerable to suffering from poverty. I understand the contention made by the noble Lord that, without particular safeguards written into the Bill, some of the most vulnerable children in society might be left behind. It is not the Government’s intention to prioritise action on those children who are easier to lift out of poverty in order to meet the targets. That would be a self-defeating approach, as it would not be possible to meet the four poverty targets in the Bill while failing to tackle poverty for the most disadvantaged children. Furthermore, as the noble Lord anticipated, we would be failing to comply with the duty in Clause 8(2)(b) to ensure as far as possible that children in the UK do not experience socio-economic disadvantage. I make it clear that our goal is to eradicate poverty for all children. The framework established in the Bill supports that. Identifying and defining every group of children that experiences a high risk of poverty is extremely difficult and in some cases may not be possible with current data. Including in the Bill a list of disadvantaged groups would therefore risk capturing some groups while leaving out others. The duties to meet the targets and on tackling socio-economic disadvantage will drive action to tackle child poverty among all children. This very much includes the most vulnerable. With the assurance that I have just provided, I hope that the noble Lord will not press his amendment. Amendment 79 would include looked-after children and homeless children in Clause 24(3), which sets out certain circumstances in which children are to be considered as living in poverty. Clause 24(3) is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all children to be covered by local actions; indeed, it is specifically stated that Clause 24(3) does not limit the broader definitions in Clause 24(2). Consequently, there is no need to add looked-after children and homeless children in this subsection. It is true that some looked-after children and homeless children are not captured by the definitions of poverty that are used to define the child poverty targets in Part 1 of the Bill. Sitting suspended for a Division in the House.