Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, I hope that I can give both noble Lords the reassurances that they seek. The amendment would require the Secretary of State, in preparing the child poverty strategy, to consult the Four Nations Forum on Child Poverty. Perhaps it would help if I explained a little about the four nations forum. It is essentially a group of key officials working on child poverty from the Child Poverty Unit and each of the devolved Administrations. The group meets quarterly to share information, analysis and good practice on action to address child poverty. It may discuss, for example, what makes effective child poverty strategy and how best to support local authorities and their partners to tackle child poverty locally. The forum is an informal working group. It does not currently have established terms of reference and no Ministers are directly engaged in its deliberations. Of course, that does not mean that it is not a worthwhile forum—it ensures good partnership working between the UK Government and the devolved Administrations. This was particularly helpful as we were developing the provisions in the Bill and I am sure that it will continue to be valuable as we develop the child poverty strategies required by the Bill on the basis of mutual respect, as the noble Lord asserted that it should. However, I think that noble Lords would accept that it is not appropriate to specify a formal role for this body in legislation. The Bill already provides a framework and a legal basis for joint working between the UK Government and the devolved Administrations. Clause 8(3) of the Bill states: "““A UK strategy may also refer to proposals of the Scottish Ministers, Welsh Ministers and the relevant Northern Irish department””." Subsection (7)(a) of the same clause states that any strategy, after the first, must describe, "““the measures taken in accordance with a Scottish strategy, a Welsh strategy or a Northern Ireland strategy””." These measures will ensure that the Secretary of State prepares a strategy reflecting the needs of children and families across the UK. As noble Lords will be aware, the Welsh Assembly has already introduced the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2009, which places a duty on Welsh Ministers to prepare a child poverty strategy for Wales and report on progress every three years. This puts in place measures broadly equivalent to those that are set out in Clauses 10 and 11 of the Child Poverty Bill on the Scottish and Northern Ireland strategies respectively. Therefore, in order not to duplicate the existing Measure, the Child Poverty Bill does not require Welsh Ministers to publish a child poverty strategy. Noble Lords will also be aware that the Bill requires each of the devolved Administrations to appoint a member to the Child Poverty Commission and for the commission to provide advice not only on the UK strategy but also on the Scottish and Northern Irish strategies. These provisions should also encourage joined-up thinking about the best way of addressing child poverty across the whole of the UK. I hope that that is the reassurance that noble Lords are seeking.