HL Deb 30 October 2000 vol 618 cc70-1WA
Lord Faulkner of Worcester

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What arrangements they are making for the parliamentary accountability for the Children's Fund and for their strategy to co-ordinate services for tackling disadvantage among children and young people. [HL4414]

The Minister of State, Department for Education and Employment (Baroness Blackstone)

My right honourable friend the Prime Minister announced on 28 July that he was establishing a new Cabinet Ministerial Group on Children and Young People's Services which would be chaired by my right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer with my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment as Vice Chair, and which would be supported by a new cross-cutting Children and Young People's Unit to be located in the Department for Education and Employment. He also appointed my right honourable friend the Minister of State and Deputy Home Secretary as Minister for Young People with day to day responsibility for the unit and the co-ordination of the Government's strategy in England on vulnerable children and young people.

The Children's Fund will form a major new part of the Government's strategy to tackle child poverty and prevent social exclusion. The fund will support services to work with children and their families and prevent children and young people falling into drug abuse, truancy, unemployment and crime. It will be worth a total of £450 millon over three years.

The new interdepartmental Children and Young People's Unit, based in the Department for Education and Employment, will run the Children's Fund in England at official level. The unit's remit will be set by the new Cabinet Ministerial Group on Children and Young People's Services. The unit will have its own Request for Resources within the Department for Education and Employment's Estimate. The Head of the Children and Young People's Unit, once appointed, will be an additional Accounting Officer within the department. As is usual, the appointment as additional Accounting Officer will be made by the Treasury and a copy of the letter of appointment, setting out the respective roles and responsibilities of the additional Accounting Officer and the Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education and Employment as Principal Accounting Officer, will be sent to the Comptroller and Auditor General and to the Clerk of the Committee of Public Accounts.

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment will be answerable to Parliament for the Children's Fund and the work of the unit. However, my right honourable friend the Minister for Young People, will normally answer parliamentary Questions on the Children's Fund and the unit in another place, and in the case of Oral Questions will do so during Department for Education and Employment Question Time. The Government expect that the relevant Select Committees will normally wish to invite him to appear when they examine the Children's Fund and the Government's strategy on services to tackle disadvantage among children and young people. I shall answer for the Government in this House.

The Government will liaise as necessary with the House authorities to ensure that these arrangements work well and secure effective accountability for this innovative policy.