Clause 10
Child Poverty Bill
2:15 pm
Helen Goodman (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Bishop Auckland, Labour)
Amendments 33 to 39 and 46 relate to the clauses that place duties on the Scottish and Northern Irish Governments, and they have been tabled at their request. This set of amendments has two purposes. First, the amendments will add a requirement on Scottish Ministers and the offices of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister to report annually to the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly respectively. The report must detail progress made in implementing their child poverty strategies, including how measures they have taken have contributed to the UK-wide child poverty targets in clauses 2 to 5. That is broadly similar to the requirement on the Secretary of State in clause 13 to report annually to this Parliament. The amendments will increase accountability to the devolved assemblies, and will ensure that there is an annual progress check of steps towards meeting the 2020 goals.
The second purpose of this group of amendments is to ensure that the Bill is technically correct by removing a number of references to “Northern Ireland department” and replacing them with “Northern Ireland departments”. The amendments will ensure that the Bill recognises the role and responsibilities that central Northern Ireland Departments, other than the offices of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, have in relation to the Northern Ireland strategy.
Although the offices of First Minister and Deputy First Minister have overall policy responsibility for poverty and social inclusion matters, the goals of the child poverty strategy can be achieved only if all Northern Ireland Departments take steps to tackle child poverty. References to the duties of Northern Ireland Departments are, in that respect, similar to references already in the Bill to the duties of the Secretary of State or the Scottish Ministers that signal collective responsibility.
Amendments 40 to 45 clarify the wording of the UK annual report clause—clause 13. They are minor, technical amendments that will make the precise timetable for laying annual reports before Parliament clear and they will make those references consistent with the references to the timetable for Northern Ireland or Scottish annual reports. I am sure the Committee will agree that the amendments further strengthen the UK-wide framework for tackling child poverty that the Bill will establish.