Clause 7
Child Poverty Bill
5:30 pm
David Gauke (Shadow Minister, Treasury; South West Hertfordshire, Conservative)
May I say for the first time today, Mr. Key, what a pleasure it is to serve under your chairmanship?
I rise to make a couple of brief points. First, the amendment raises an interesting question. As the hon. Member for Northavon said, we could see the Bill as being about achieving the 2020 target and, clearly, the child poverty commission has a role in that. Once that target is achieved, assuming that it is, what then is the ongoing role for the child poverty commission? Is there an argument for it to be abolished? We do not believe that quangos should exist for the sake of it. We are interested to hear what the Minister has to say about that and about his defence of the Secretary of State’s ability to abolish the commission.
My second point is a technical one, which is that the amendment does not do all that it should do. It proposes the removal of clause 7(4), but subsections (5) and (6) should also be struck out. For that reason, if the hon. Gentleman intended to press the amendment to a Division, we could not support it. However, an interesting point is being made and we would be grateful to hear the Minister’s views.