Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what mechanisms are in place to ensure ministerial accountability to Parliament for progress on child poverty reduction.

We want to see an enduring reduction in child poverty over this parliament as part of long-term, 10-year strategy for lasting change.

The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, published alongside the Strategy, sets out how we will track progress and evaluate success as part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, accountability and continued learning. It can be found here: Child Poverty Strategy: Monitoring and Evaluation Framework - GOV.UK.

We will use two complementary headline metrics, relative poverty (after housing costs) and deep material poverty, as well as comprehensive programme of analysis focussing on the drivers of child poverty and the impact of specific interventions.

Relative low income poverty is an internationally recognised income measure of poverty which reflects changing living standards over time. Deep material poverty is a new measure based on material deprivation, which reflects our commitment to addressing deeper child poverty. It is measured based on what families report they can afford.

We will publish a baseline report next summer which will set out the latest statistics and evidence, with annual reporting thereafter to monitor and evaluate progress.

We will continue to have a dedicated team in government that works with departments across the Government, the wider public, private sectors and civil society, to keep focus on tackling this stain of child poverty, with oversight from Ministers across Government.