Welfare Reform and Work Bill

My Lords, I support my noble friend, who made a very powerful case. The joint briefing from the c...

I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Sherlock, and the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, for bringing forwar...

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord on being able to cost one of tonight’s amendments. I find...

No, that is exactly what I meant.

At least my hearing is better than my understanding. I find that a profoundly disappointing respo...

Moved by

The Lord Bishop of Portsmouth

21: After Clause 12, insert the following new ...

My Lords, I tabled Amendment 21 to highlight the impact of this measure on different faith commun...

My Lords, in speaking in support of this amendment, I will pick up what the right reverend Prelat...

My Lords, I rise to support Amendment 21 in the name of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of ...

Briefly, my Lords, I welcome the introduction by the previous Government of the family test. It w...

Can the Minister help me? I was just checking, and as far as I can see from handbooks, we continu...

I thank the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Portsmouth and the noble Earl, Lord Listowel, fo...

I am sorry to intervene, but that is no answer, my Lords. I asked a very clear, factual question....

As I said, projections on the HBAI are difficult, and everyone gets them wrong because they are d...

I am very sorry to intervene again. As I said, the Home Office, which is not the author of the or...

As I said, the documentation that we have published is the documentation that we need to publish ...

I do not presume to know any more than others about this subject—no one knows more than my noble ...

This amendment is asking us to do an analysis over the next six months. In practice, that is what...

I want to come back at the Minister. I was not trying to make a cheap jibe but, unless I am misre...

The noble Baroness has a long memory. Polygamous marriages were recognised in JSA, income support...

Except that financial support will, presumably, continue to be given to the other women who are i...

No. If there is a third person in that household they would be treated as a single person.

The point I am making is that they may be treated as a single person but they are getting financi...

This is really becoming arcane. We have said that we do not recognise polygamous marriage in univ...

Can I make what I hope is not an arcane point? I invite the Minister, in responding to my amendme...

No, I have not; the right reverend Prelate is correct. In this policy we have looked through that...

My Lords, I am grateful for the Minister’s response, but I think he will understand that I am dis...

Moved by

Lord Ramsbotham

22: Clause 4, page 4, line 32, at end insert—

“( ) the...

My Lords, in speaking to the two amendments in my name, I regret that I was unable to raise at Se...

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 22, 23, 27, 29, 30 and 34. Given that it is quite late, I w...

I will speak to Amendment 22, moved by my noble friend Lord Ramsbotham and to which my name is at...

My Lords, I crave three minutes to support the spirit of the amendments in this group, which reco...

My Lords, I will speak very briefly to Amendment 34, tabled so comprehensively by my noble friend...

My Lords, I speak in support of my noble friend’s Amendment 34 and focus on the impact of benefit...

My Lords, this group of amendments is largely focused on the non-income issues and seeks to add t...

My Lords, by virtue of Clause 4 the Government are committing themselves to reporting annually on...

Just on that point, I have heard this evening that various departments do their own thing, but co...

That is a good point but, in essence, if you are not achieving the target in the earlier stages, ...

I have a couple of points, the first on problem debt. Will the Government also be assessing the i...

There have been studies showing the numbers who are addicted to one or the other. I remember prod...

I am still a little unclear on one fairly key point. When responding to the consultation on the m...

I am not sure that the Government would do much different from what they are doing. They have a s...

Could we perhaps have one more brief run-through of the issue of income? The Minister says that t...

No. Every year I stand here because there is a forecast that says that child poverty is going up,...

My Lords, it is late so I will ask just two brief questions. I thank the Minister for his respons...

As I said, we will be putting out the life-chances strategy in time. The interministerial meets e...

Sorry, but I am asking about a homelessness strategy, dealing with the particular issue of housin...

Is the noble Earl talking about the interministerial meeting, which deals with those issues? Yes,...

That is very helpful.

The Minister talked about working with local authorities on child poverty, which obviously is wel...

It is the same answer that I have just given: we want local authorities to focus their time on ac...

But surely the strategy could be a strategy to get at root causes. The Child Poverty Act does not...

What we are doing is working with local authorities to support them in getting at the root causes...

While I am grateful to the Minister for that information about the interdepartmental group and ho...

I will be pleased to do that.

I will follow up on the point about local authorities that my noble friend Lady Lister raised. Th...

As noble Lords will be aware, the Government’s emphasis is to put authority into the hands of loc...

My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have contributed to this group of amendments. I also thank ...

I thank the noble Lord very much, but I do not want to let the noble Lord leave the Chamber tonig...

I am grateful to the noble Lord for that explanation. He knows perfectly well that on previous oc...

Amendment 24. I call the noble Baroness, Lady Lister.

My Lords, I understood that it had been agreed between the usual channels that this was the point...

I do apologise, but I came into the Chamber expecting that we would be going on to the next group...

My Lords, I think that that is deeply unfair. I am well aware of the discussions that were held i...

In that case, I suggest that the Committee adjourn.