Clause 7
Child Poverty Bill
6:10 pm
Helen Goodman (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Bishop Auckland, Labour)
As I was saying before the Division, the parallel with the Monetary Policy Committee is not a good one, because while it is solely focused on one objective and one target, this is obviously a more complex arena. We are making it clear that we are drawing on the expertise of a lot of people, who will be able to contribute on various different policy levers of which Ministers will want to avail themselves. I do not think that anybody realistically thinks that the targets that we are setting out in the Bill can be achieved solely through one type of policy response. I hope that it is clear in paragraphs 13 and 14 of schedule 1 that the commission will regulate its own proceedings, so we are not prescribing now precisely how it should do its work.
I should like to make a final point about the qualities of people, particularly the chairman of the commission. A good chairman seeks not to stifle debate, but to draw creatively on the different contributions of the members of a commission, and in doing so to build a consensus when possible. Certainly, they do not seek to provoke disagreement. The commission is not intended as a debating chamber; it is intended to be a body that formulates advice for the Secretary of State. Of course, on occasion, people might lay a different emphasis on aspects of that advice. In such instances, it would be interesting for people to know that, and that would be reasonable.