Child Poverty Act 2010

Reports by Secretary of State

14 Reports by Secretary of State

(1) The Secretary of State must, on or before each report date relating to a UK strategy, lay before Parliament a report on the progress made—

(a) towards meeting the targets in sections 3 to 6, and

(b) in implementing the UK strategy.

(2) The report dates relating to a UK strategy are each anniversary of the day on which it was laid before Parliament, other than an anniversary which falls—

(a) on or after the date on which a subsequent UK strategy is so laid, or

(b) after the end of the target year.

(3) The Secretary of State must, as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of the target year, lay before Parliament a report on the progress made in implementing the most recent UK strategy.

(4) A report under subsection (1) or (3) must in particular—

(a) describe the measures taken by the Secretary of State in accordance with the UK strategy,

(b) describe the measures taken by the Scottish Ministers, the Welsh Ministers and the Northern Ireland departments in accordance with a Scottish strategy, a Welsh strategy or a Northern Ireland strategy,

(c) in the case of a report under subsection (1), describe the effect of all those measures on progress towards the targets and on progress in achieving the purpose mentioned in section 9(2)(b).

(5) If the UK strategy has not been implemented in full, the report must describe the respects in which it has not been implemented and the reasons for this.

(6) Before preparing a report under subsection (1) or (3), the Secretary of State must consult the Scottish Ministers, the Welsh Ministers and the relevant Northern Ireland department.

15 Statement required in relation to target year

(1) The report under section 14(3) must include a statement of—

(a) the percentage of children living in qualifying households in the United Kingdom in the target year who were living in households that fell within the relevant income group for the purposes of section 3 (the relative low income target);

(b) the percentage of children living in qualifying households in the United Kingdom in the target year who were for the purposes of section 4 (the combined low income and material deprivation target) living in households that fell within the relevant income group and experiencing material deprivation;

(c) the percentage of children living in qualifying households in the United Kingdom in the target year who were living in households that fell within the relevant income group for the purposes of section 5 (the absolute low income target);

(d) the percentage of children who have lived in qualifying households during the survey years (as defined by section 6(2)) which relate to the target year who have lived in households that fell within the relevant income group for the purposes of section 6 (the persistent poverty target) in at least 3 of the survey years.

(2) The statement must be based on statistics that the Statistics Board has designated under section 12 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (assessment) as National Statistics.

(3) Whether the targets in sections 3 to 6 have been met in relation to the target year is to be determined by reference to the percentages given in the statement.

(4) If any of the targets in sections 3 to 6 has not been met, the report under section 14(3) must explain why it has not been met.