Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to page 56 of the report, UK Poverty: Causes and Solutions, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on 6 September 2016, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the recommendation to support consumer organisations with funding, capacity and statutory rights, to enable them to analyse data to identify areas of detriment to people in poverty.

The department provides £22.3 million to Citizens Advice and £2.9 million to Citizens Advice Scotland annually in core funding enabling those organisations to use their data to undertake further research to help those most in need, including the vulnerable and those in poverty.