Clause 14
Child Poverty Bill
3:00 pm
Helen Goodman (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Work and Pensions; Bishop Auckland, Labour)
I am slightly concerned by the hon. Gentleman’s use of the word “excuse”; it is not appropriate. Producing a report that explains what has not happened is different from making an excuse. The truth is that the duty is absolute. What is being produced is an accountability mechanism for the end of the period. However, it would be possible for legal action to be taken before 2020, not, as the hon. Gentleman suggests, if forecasts suggest that the targets will be missed, but if the Government’s actions, strategy or decisions will not be sufficient to allow them to meet their duties.
The duties of the Government prior to 2020 are to produce credible strategies. If they fail to do that, they will be open to legal challenge, and the claimants would need to produce clear evidence that they have failed to do that. In that case, there would not be a Government report before 2020 stating whether or not the targets had been met. The argument would be about whether the approach being taken was reasonable and, obviously, it would be up to the Government to show that they had a credible strategy. If the hon. Gentleman takes those two things together, he should be reassured that the measure will be an effective discipline on any Government. It will maintain the pressure—that is what he is primarily concerned about—and it will strengthen the force behind our objective of achieving the targets.