UK Parliament / Open data

Child Poverty Bill

Proceeding contribution from Lord McKenzie of Luton (Labour) in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 9 March 2010. It occurred during Debate on bills on Child Poverty Bill.
My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have spoken to these amendments. Perhaps I can clarify what I understand to be the position should the noble Lord wish to press one of his amendments but not all those in the group. I understand that as long as he makes that clear when he does it, it will be in order. I am bound to say that I would discourage him from doing so, but—to be fair to the noble Lord—he should know what the rules are. I start with Amendment 23. We had an interesting and wide-ranging debate in Committee on minimum income standards. As I said then, the Government welcome the research that has already been carried out on minimum income standards, such as that completed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the other research that my noble friend Lord Rea referred to. We continue to follow this research with interest. The Government consulted extensively on the most appropriate long-term measures of child poverty. Minimum income standards were ruled out because different research methods tend to make different assumptions and it is difficult to get one answer to the question, "How much is enough?". To be clear, the researchers themselves explicitly say that minimum income standards should not be treated as a poverty threshold. The latest research by the JRF, published in 2008 and updated in July 2009, is robust and I understand that it is also planning on updating this analysis. Requiring the Government to replicate this research, as this amendment does, is not a good use of government resources, particularly at this time. However, if in the future the JRF chose not to continue with this research, I am sure the Government would consider whether they could take it on. However, I agree with the noble Lord that minimum income standards are relevant to the discussion on poverty and standards of living. Consideration of minimum income standards must be balanced against other equally valid and important considerations—for example, labour market incentives and long-term sustainability. Therefore, I hope the noble Lord will not press Amendment 23, at least. Amendment 11 would require the commission to produce a report in respect of each calendar year, stating the number of malnourished children in the United Kingdom and an assessment of how the level of child poverty has influenced the number of malnourished children. The terms "malnourished" and "level of child poverty" are not defined in the amendment or the Bill, so it is not clear how the commission would go about assessing these levels. It is also not clear what the commission is to do with the report once it is drafted. Leaving these matters aside, like other noble Lords I have sympathy with the noble Lord’s intention. The Government are clear that everyone should be able to choose and have reliable access to affordable, healthy and safe food. The barriers to accessing a healthy, sustainable diet are complex, but through initiatives like Healthy Start we are making sure that those on the lowest incomes can access healthy, nutritious food. As I said in Committee, there are other government programmes aimed at improving maternal nutrition, such as the health in pregnancy grant and the Sure Start maternity grant. I think we dropped my noble friend Lady Hollis a line in response to her inquiry. The answer is that it is not possible to split the grant for the reasons that were set out in that letter, which I cannot immediately bring to mind. I will follow up and write to my noble friend.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
718 c186-7 
Session
2009-10
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
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