Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Child Poverty Strategy in the absence of statutory targets for reducing child poverty.

Our Child Poverty Strategy sets out the steps we are taking to reduce child poverty this Parliament, lifting 550,000 children out of poverty in 2029/30. These interventions are set to lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework (Child Poverty Strategy: Monitoring and Evaluation Framework - GOV.UK), published alongside the Strategy, sets out how progress will be assessed through a clear framework, including headline metrics on relative low income and deep material poverty, alongside a comprehensive programme of analysis and cross‑government working. Further details on our approach will follow in a baseline report this summer, alongside the latest statistics and evidence.

The Government already has a statutory duty to publish poverty statistics annually and we also hold ourselves to account on our progress through the monitoring and evaluation arrangements we have put in place. This means that from this year and in future years, the progress we make is transparent for all.