Child Poverty Bill

As an appendix to that, I obviously agree with the thrust of the amendment. There is a feeling in Scotland that different best practices are being tried in different fields in different ways and there is obviously a variation in scale. The situation in a nation of 5 million people is a very different kettle of fish from administering a benefits system for the whole of the United Kingdom and translating and reading across the projects. If the amendment were to be inserted into the Bill, or at least taken on board by the Government, we would benefit from a lot of the creative thinking that is going on in other parts of the United Kingdom. It must not be an unequal partnership; it must be a four nations forum. The emphasis should be on mutual respect and learning from different circumstances in different parts of the United Kingdom. If that is done in a positive and constructive way, it will add greatly to the promotion of the policies that we all want, so I absolutely support the thrust of the amendment.