NORTH Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has given his support to the Assembly Legislative Consent Motion on the Welfare Reform Bill.

The Motion only relates to provisions in the Welfare Reform Bill relating to the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, insofar as they fall within the legislative competence of the Welsh Assembly, for consideration by the UK Parliament.

Speaking in the debate on the Motion, Mr Isherwood said: "We note that the Social Mobility Strategy at UK level, to which this relates, sets out progressively to tackle the causes of poverty, rather than just the symptoms, which is something that we applaud. We will support this Legislative Consent Motion, because we need to restore the balance between a body with a UK-wide remit and the need to refer to the Welsh strategy as a devolved matter. We therefore need to give a picture at both a UK level and devolved level of progress in these important areas."

Mr Isherwood added: "The advent of the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission will see a strengthening of the role of the Child Poverty Commission in holding the UK Government to account, and the Commission will report to the UK Parliament and monitor and drive progress towards ending child poverty, improving life chances and increasing social mobility. In that regard, will there be a mechanism for reporting to Welsh Government Ministers or to the Assembly on those matters affecting Wales?

"I understand that the Commission will have a set of key indicators included within the strategy, which will, for the first time, define how social mobility is measured so that the UK Government can see where it is having the most impact and where it needs to adjust its approach. The Deputy Minister refers to the Children and Families (Wales) Measure 2010 and the reporting required by the Welsh Government from 2013 onwards. On a future occasion, it would be interesting to learn how the reporting required under that Measure will contrast or compare with the reporting undertaken at a UK level."