1 The Inquiry
1. Although the Committee's predecessor in the previous
Parliament had considered undertaking an inquiry into child poverty,
it was not until the current Parliament that the timing was deemed
to be right. The Government had announced its intention to eradicate
child poverty in 20 years, to halve it by 2010 and to reduce it
by a quarter by 2004. The first stage in this challenging target
would be reached in the current Parliament and if the momentum
was to be maintained towards the later, even more demanding, targets,
additional money would almost certainly be required. The additional
expenditure would need to be agreed in the Spending Review currently
being undertaken by the Government. The Committee hopes that its
inquiry and this report will influence and assist those discussions
as well as informing the House.
2. The Committee agreed its terms of reference as:
"to examine the extent of child poverty in the UK and the
effectiveness of the Government's strategy to eradicate it".
The inquiry was announced on 25 June 2003 and the Press Notice
listed the following issues as likely to be included:
- The measurement of child poverty
and the Government's annual poverty report, Opportunity For
All.
- The extent of child poverty in Britain and the
causes of it.
- The impact of child poverty on children and families
are specific groups particularly affected?
- The extent and causes of regional variations
in child poverty.
- The effectiveness of the Government's strategies
to reduce child poverty and whether the child poverty targets
will be met. Is enough being done across Government and are further
initiatives needed?
- Comparisons between child poverty within the
UK and other countries.
3. Following the receipt of written evidence[1],
the Committee decided its programme of oral evidence, which was
taken at eight sessions of the Committee between 19 November 2003
and 25 February 2004[2].
The Committee took oral evidence from a wide range of witnesses
including voluntary organisations, academics, the Institute for
Fiscal Studies (IFS), organisations representing local authorities,
Treasury officials, the Minister for Children and Department for
Work and Pensions (DWP) Minister and officials.
4. In addition to the formal evidence the Committee
visited Paris, Copenhagen and Belfast.[3]
We have drawn heavily on our experiences during those visits which,
although the deliberations are not "on the record",
have greatly assisted the Committee in preparing this report and
will be referred to throughout. We were conscious, during our
visit to Belfast, of the uncertainties of the current political
situation during the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
At times it was difficult to determine who had actual responsibility
for the various policies concerning child poverty and their implementation
and whether that would change once the Assembly is re-instated.
We are grateful to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, which
has formal responsibility for scrutiny of the Northern Ireland
Executive during suspension, for supporting our inquiry. We were
also aware that other Government Departments had responsibility
for policy areas which affect child poverty and its eradication.
However, since our report is to the House and the eventual reply
will be from the Government we have taken the view that it will
be for the Government to respond on behalf of all Departments
concerned and for agreed recommendations to be implemented by
those who have the relevant responsibility.
5. The Committee depends very heavily on the evidence,
oral, written and informal, for the successful conduct of its
inquiry. As usual we have been pleased by the response to our
call for evidence in this inquiry, for the willingness of witnesses
to give oral evidence, sometimes at some personal inconvenience,
to the Committee and we are grateful to the many people who helped
us before and during our visits. We record our thanks to all those
who have contributed to the inquiry.
6. We are especially grateful for additional research
undertaken on our behalf by Holly Sutherland of the Microsimulation
Unit, University of Cambridge, Professor Mike Noble of the Social
Disadvantage Research Centre, University of Oxford and Mr Mike
Brewer of the IFS. Throughout the inquiry the Committee had the
extremely valuable assistance, as Specialist Advisers, of Professor
Jonathan Bradshaw of the Social Policy Research Unit, University
of York and Professor David Piachaud of the Centre for Analysis
of Social Exclusion, the London School of Economics. We greatly
appreciate and value the contribution made by them to our work.
1 A list of the written evidence is at p107 Back
2
For a list of witnesses see p106 The oral evidence is published
as Volume III Back
3
The notes of the visits are at Annex 3 and Annex 4 respectively Back
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