Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the forthcoming Child Poverty Strategy will include (a) objectives and (b) targets beyond the initial 10-year framework to ensure sustained progress in reducing child poverty in (i) Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency, (ii) Hertfordshire and (iii) England.

Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this Government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity. The Child Poverty Taskforce is progressing work to publish its strategy as soon as possible and we are exploring all available levers to drive forward short and long-term actions across government to reduce child poverty.

Our focus is on bringing about an enduring reduction in child poverty in this parliament, thereby reversing the trend that is seeing forecasts of child poverty continuing to increase. More details, including on the time horizon, will be set out in the strategy publication.