Child Poverty Bill

I thank the Minister for that response, which seems to pull back a little from what he said last month. The point of the amendment is that there are differences of approach to tackling the problem of child poverty—we have discussed some of them in the past few weeks. A Secretary of State will want to hear advice which promotes his or her strategy in tackling it. It would be counterproductive if one had a commission which was driving down one road and a Government driving down the other. That is how I read the Minister’s response to the same point when it came up last month. On the matter of which Secretary of State is relevant, I join the noble Lord, Lord Northbourne, in his slight incredulity about the seamlessness of Governments. We have all read enough history of recent British Governments to know that many Secretaries of State end up unable to talk to each other after a few years in office. This question is important. I am not asking which Secretary of State is locked into the Bill, because the convention is not to lock a Secretary of State into the Bill. My question is: which Secretary of State do this Government intend to take responsibility for child poverty and the commission? I will give way to allow a response from the Minister on that.