Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I start by congratulating the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, on his 50th wedding anniversary—no mean achievement. The noble Lord’s amendment would require the Secretary of State to consider and report on the potential impact on child poverty of placing a requirement on registrars to give parents a range of information when they register the birth. In particular, registrars would need to provide information on the parenting needs of children, marriage and the benefits to a child of strong family relationships, and commitment ceremonies, such as child welcoming and naming ceremonies. I support the noble Lord’s aims in tabling this amendment. We know that early parental acknowledgement of a child can set the scene for an ongoing positive relationship. That is why, for example, we are introducing new provisions that will make joint birth registration the norm for unmarried couples. I do not disagree with the noble Lord that the areas that he has highlighted are important. However, I do not agree that it is appropriate or necessary for registrars to be required to provide advice to parents on such complex matters. Registrars have a very specific role, which is to record information given to them for entry in official registers. They do not have the capacity to take on responsibility for advising on policy issues. In any case, parents’ needs are extremely diverse; the advice that they need—and the timing of that advice—will vary depending on the circumstances of the individual. The families and relationships Green Paper sets out the ambition to support families of all shapes and sizes and to give them the right type of support at different points in life. Each local authority in England is under a statutory duty to offer an information service to parents. These local family information services offer expert information, advice and assistance to parents on a range of issues, such as childcare, availability of local parenting support and other services, facilities and publications that would be of help to them. These services should ensure that information for parents is made available through a wide range of outlets that parents are likely to visit. These include Sure Start children’s centres, GP surgeries, libraries, community centres, post offices and schools—and maybe women’s magazines as well. There are currently over 3,000 children’s centres for the families of children aged nought to five providing information and services for parents. Therefore, we suggest, it is not appropriate for registrars to take on additional responsibility for doing so. Perhaps at this juncture I might alert noble Lords, while reminding them that Christmas was some time back, that the Government are intending to move another amendment to add to the list of policy areas to be considered under the child poverty strategy a fifth building block in Clause 8, which would cover the provision of information, advice and assistance to parents. This chimes with the noble Lord’s amendment and other debates and discussions that we have had. I hope that that will ease the pain of his withdrawing the amendment, if he is able to do so. We recognise the importance of naming ceremonies, which the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, referred to, whether a religious event, a means to welcome the child into the wider circle of family or friends or an opportunity to reaffirm the responsibilities of parents. The vast majority of councils already offer this service, so we do not believe that it would be helpful to increase or mandate this provision. I hope that the noble Lord will feel able to withdraw his amendment.