Monday 25th March 2013

(11 years, 9 months ago)

Lords Chamber
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Lord Freud Portrait Lord Freud
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My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that. The essential point is that we are moving to local authority support for people who are in trouble as that is the best place for them to get that support. Food banks may well be part of that. One thing that local authorities are looking at is providing support in kind to people who would otherwise have taken cash. It is a more effective way of doing it. Food banks are another aspect of that.

Lord Tomlinson Portrait Lord Tomlinson
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Does the Minister agree that the subject about which we hear so little these days, the big society, was supposed to have helped to eradicate the problems of poverty?