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AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

I suggest that the hon. Gentleman do a bit of homework between now and next week and send me a letter, and we will consider the matter in the Committee. I turn to fiscal policy and fiscal sustainability. In several reports during the current Parliament, the Committee has argued that the fiscal rules need to be more forward-looking and less dependent on the dating of the economic cycle. Although the fiscal rules have served the Government and the public finances well in the past decade, the Government and others might have focused too much attention on arithmetical arguments about whether the rules have been met, and insufficient attention on underlying issues of fiscal sustainability. On the golden rule, the most pertinent question to ask ourselves is not about public borrowing over a notional economic cycle but about the current state of the public finances and the prospects for the near future. With regard to public sector debt, it is clear that performance against the sustainable investment rule will be affected by both the public sector control of Northern Rock and the eventual implementation of international financial reporting standards, which will mean almost all private finance initiative projects appearing on the public sector balance sheet. I expect the Committee to consider in detail the impact of that, and how it is reported. In doing so, we must bear in mind the underlying purpose of the fiscal rules: to set parameters for fiscal sustainability. It remains to be seen whether either accounting changes or the public control of Northern Rock represent a threat to that sustainability. On child poverty, I am delighted to note the Chancellor’s initiatives, but we must remember that there are still 2.8 million young people in poverty. One big issue that the Treasury Committee has tackled in recent years is financial inclusion. We have produced four reports on it since November 2006, which have stated the need for people to be included in the banking services and financial network. Those who are excluded from that network are largely socially excluded as well. Let us not forget that 600,000 children have been taken out of poverty. That is six times the population of my constituency, more than the population of Bristol and two thirds of the size of the population of Glasgow, so the achievement is considerable—but the Treasury Committee was concerned about the idea that the Government might be resiling from their child poverty targets. I am delighted to see today that the Government have stuck to those targets. Some 700,000 more children must be taken out of poverty by 2010 if the Government are to achieve their interim target, and there will be a long way to go by 2020. I can say with confidence that the Committee will examine the Chancellor on that matter in the next few weeks.