Oral Answers to Questions

Fiona O'Donnell Excerpts

Tuesday 11th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I have not heard a definitive refusal directly from the Welsh Government, although I have heard some very disappointing comments from members of the Labour party in this House. The changes we are proposing to make following the Silk commission, including the devolution of income tax powers to the Welsh Assembly, subject to a referendum, constitute an important package of reforms that will strengthen the accountability of the Welsh Government as well as the economic levers available to them.

[Fiona O'Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab)]

T4. I hope that the Chief Secretary thinks that I am a woman who merits an answer. Given that he has recently found his mojo, can he tell us whether he supports any changes to the way in which levels of child poverty are calculated?

[Danny Alexander]

I think that the hon. Lady merits answers to all her questions. There is a good case for retaining the existing measures, but it is also important that we have an understanding, through the measures we use, of the wider factors that influence child poverty—the barriers to life chances and so on. I do not propose getting rid of the existing measures, which I think are important, but supplementing them with further measures to ensure that we have policies which are properly targeted to deal with the long-term causes of child poverty would help us all.