Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, it is important to reiterate our policy intention in setting up a Child Poverty Commission. We believe that the Secretary of State—I shall come on to which one in a minute—can be greatly helped in meeting the targets set out in the Bill, and doing so in a sustainable way, if he has ready access to expert advice on the strategies to adopt and the targets set out in the Bill. The amendment would require the Secretary of State to provide guidance to the commission on matters on which it must provide advice and to which it must have regard when giving advice. The commission would have to have regard to guidance that was provided. The amendment is neither necessary nor desirable, a point that the noble Lords, Lord Kirkwood and Lord Northbourne, made. The commission will be an expert body comprised of members knowledgeable in this field. It is unlikely that with such a skills and knowledge base it would require guidance from the Secretary of State of the type proposed by the amendment. Furthermore, in practice, the Secretary of State would alert the commission to a range of factors that he might expressly wish it to consider. Clause 15 already requires the commission to provide sensible advice that takes account of economic and fiscal circumstances. The Bill already contains the necessary safeguards that will ensure that the commission provides robust and high-quality advice. There is a fear that the real intention of the amendment is to stifle the independence of the commission to make it absolutely beholden to government. I wholeheartedly disagree with this approach, as it would result in the Government simply receiving advice that they wished to hear, rather than that which will be of most benefit in preparing the strategy to tackle child poverty and deliver the 2020 goal. I assure your Lordships that we are not afraid of receiving robust, independent advice on what works in tackling child poverty. The noble Lord asked how the relationship would operate in practice and whether there would be day-to-day contact. These things will doubtless be developed over time. There may well be occasions when research is being worked on and there is more regular contact than on other occasions. It is not a matter specifically for the Bill; it has to be worked out in the terms of reference and operation of the commission. It is not unusual practice for a Bill not to identify which Secretary of State would be involved. This is a joined-up approach across government. The Child Poverty Unit, in particular, will drive much of it. It does not matter too much which individual Secretary of State might be engaged. It is a cross-government strategy and a unit has been set up to drive it.