Section 2 of the Child Poverty Act 2010 (“the Act”) places a duty on the Secretary of State to ensure that the targets in sections 3 to 6 of the Act are met by the target year which is defined as the financial year beginning on 1 April 2020.

Section 6 of the Act relates to the persistent poverty target. This target is that less than a percentage target of children who have lived in qualifying households whose equivalised net income has been less than 60% of UK median equivalised net household income in at least three out of four consecutive survey years. Equivalised is defined in section 7 as meaning adjusted to take account of variations in household size and composition.

There is no definition of qualifying household in the Act. Section 7(1)(a) provides a power to set out in regulations the definition of a qualifying household for the purposes of the child poverty targets.

Under section 6(3) any target percentage must be prescribed by regulations made before 2015.

Regulation 2 of these Regulations sets the target percentage at 7%.

A full regulatory impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.