Social Security

The hon. and learned Gentleman knows that the Government keep missing their targets in that regard, and they are not prepared to state that they will meet their targets. It was clear that in the past year, notwithstanding the Government's targets, child poverty has risen. Against that background, we need to see how this uprating fits into the child poverty picture. As I said, the Government missed their target last year. We apprehend from Monday's Question Time that they are not on track to achieve their target of halving child poverty by 2010. The Minister evinced some interest in the issue in an early intervention on me. Now that he has had time to think about it, can he tell us where the Government are with regard to that target? If they are not going to achieve it by 2010—and we do not think that they are, given the background—when do they believe they will?