Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of the level of child poverty in North Cornwall on the basis of the four measures of poverty set out in the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016.

This Government is committed to action that improves long-term outcomes for children and families by focusing on tackling the root causes of poverty and disadvantage. The four ‘Life Chances’ measures introduced through the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, which replaced the income based targets set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010, are designed to drive action and measure progress in the areas that we know can make the biggest difference - parental worklessness and children’s educational achievement.

The measures are based on official statistics produced by the Office for National Statistics on the proportion of children in workless households and the proportion of children in long-term workless households; and on Department for Education statistics on the educational attainment at Key Stage 4 of all pupils, and of disadvantaged pupils.

Although these statistics do not all provide data for individual constituencies, local authority-level data is generally available for the measure of all children in workless households and for both the educational attainment measures. However the ONS states that the estimate of children in workless households in Cornwall Local Authority in 2016 is not sufficiently reliable, due to sample size issues. Latest figures for the South West show that there were 8.1 per cent of children in workless households in July to September 2017.

Sources

Children by the combined economic activity status of household members by local authority (Table C1 LA):

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peoplenotinwork/unemployment/bulletins/worklesshouseholdsforregionsacrosstheuk/2016/relateddata

Children in households by type of household and combined economic activity status of household members (Table M):

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/workingandworklesshouseholds/julytoseptember2017/relateddata

In 2017, pupils sat reformed GCSEs in English language, English literature and maths for the first time, graded on a 9 to 1 scale. 38.4 per cent of all pupils and 20.7 per cent of disadvantaged pupils in Cornwall Local Authority achieved 9-5 in English and maths.

Source: Characteristics local authority tables: SFR01/2018: GCSE and equivalent results in England 2016/17 (revised) (Table LA11):

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2016-to-2017

GCSE outcomes by constituency are available for all pupils but not broken down by disadvantaged pupils. In 2017, 36.7 per cent of all pupils in the North Cornwall constituency achieved 9-5 in English and maths.

Source: Pupil residency and school location tables: SFR01/2018 (Table PC1):

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/revised-gcse-and-equivalent-results-in-england-2016-to-2017