Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, for the amendment. As she anticipated, I will truncate what I have to say because I covered the issue in responding to the amendment of the noble Lord, Lord Freud. The amendment would require the Secretary of State to consider the likely impact of the measures in the strategy on certain household types as defined in regulations. The household types listed in the amendment are considered to be particularly vulnerable or particularly likely to suffer from poverty. The noble Baroness speaks with great authority on these issues and highlights the challenges that we still face. In the interests of expediency, I shall not repeat everything I said earlier. I appreciate that in tabling the amendment the noble Baroness has included a list that would be set out in regulations rather than in the Bill. However, just as it is technically difficult to definitively state in the Bill which groups should be specific, the same practical problems would arise in drafting regulations; the issue would simply be deferred to a later date. While we acknowledge that regulations would introduce slightly more flexibility than the prescribed list in Amendment 39, we also consider that having regulations identify specific groups for consideration is not appropriate for a strategy which is non-legislative and is intended to be flexible in its approach. Underpinning a strategy with formal requirements set out in secondary legislation would reduce the flexibility that is essential for an effective strategy to tackle child poverty. Additionally, I am sure noble Lords will appreciate the need to limit the number of delegated powers in the Bill and to have as much as possible in primary legislation—and it is not often that you hear a Minister say that. We have listened to this debate and to the noble Lord, Lord Freud, and the noble Baroness, Lady Thomas, with interest. We appreciate the concern of noble Lords that the needs of the most vulnerable groups should be addressed more explicitly in the Bill. As I indicated earlier, I am prepared to consider a government amendment that would require the Secretary of State when developing the strategy to consider—I stress this is not another of the building blocks—which groups of children appear to be disproportionately affected by socio-economic disadvantage and the likely impact of each measure on children within each of those groups. With that reassurance, I hope the noble Baroness will withdraw the amendment.