Halfon seeks law change to give Social Mobility Commission more power
Tristan Donovan
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
The chair of parliament's education select committee is making a bid to give the Social Mobility Commission more teeth.
Conservative backbencher Robert Halfon MP will today ask MPs to support a 10-minute rule bill calling on parliament to give the commission extra powers.
The government created the commission in 2010 as an independent body to promote social mobility in England and advise ministers on matters such as child poverty. However, the commission is currently in stasis after all four commissioners resigned last December in protest over a lack of government focus on social mobility.
Following the resignations, the education committee published a report that criticised the government for allowing the commission's membership to dwindle to nothing and proposed new legislation to give the commission additional powers.
Halfon's 10-minute rule bill will propose giving the commission the power to issue impact assessments on government policies and legislation, including those of devolved administrations. It will also call for the body to be renamed the Social Justice Commission and be empowered to advise ministers on how to improve social justice in England.
"If the government is serious about fighting the burning injustices in our society, we need a commission with real teeth and we now have an opportunity to make that a reality," said Halfon.
"The changes in this bill would strengthen the commission, giving it the vital task of assessing all domestic legislation for its impact on social justice and would also give it the power to hold ministers' feet to the fire."
"Support for our bill will be the first step in bolstering the commission," he added.
"An effective Social Justice Commission working in tandem with an implementation body at the heart of government can help to begin to heal some of the great social divides in our country and give the most vulnerable in society the chance they deserve to climb the ladder of opportunity."
Ten-minute rule bills are a parliamentary mechanism that gives a backbench MP 10 minutes to propose a new law. If MPs are persuaded to support the proposal, then a bill to enact it will be introduced to parliament.
Few 10-minute rule bills become law and MPs mainly use them as a way to push an issue up the political agenda.