Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is the scope of the baseline report on child poverty; and whether it will outline what reduction in child poverty his Department aims to achieve for the 10 year strategy period.

The baseline report will provide further details on our approach to monitoring and evaluating the Child Poverty Strategy, as initially set out in the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework published alongside the Strategy, alongside the latest statistics and evidence.

Our Child Poverty Strategy fulfils our commitment to reducing poverty this Parliament, lifting 550,000 children out of poverty, and sets out our ambition to tackle its structural drivers as part of a long-term, 10-year strategy. This Government has taken decisive action, with the interventions in the Strategy set to lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began.

From the very beginning of our time in government we have done what is needed to tackle child poverty – we have increased the minimum wage, expanded Free School Meals, invested in social and affordable housing, funded more Best Start Family Hubs, and removed the two-child limit.