The chair of the Commons Education Select Committee is launching a bill aimed at giving “real teeth” to the body set up to promote social justice.

Robert Halfon is tomorrow set to table a 10-minute-rule bill to give the Social Mobility Commission more resources and greater powers to do its job.

The proposals follow the commission’s warning in its ”State of the Nation” report last year that social mobility is subject to a postcode lottery, with too many people left behind.

Backed by the committee, the legislative proposals include: powers to enable the commission to publish social justice impact assessments on government policies and to advise ministers on social justice issues; and the creation a new governmental body to implement the social justice agenda.

The proposals were first outlined by the education committee in March alongside its report ”The future of the Social Mobility Commission”.

They also include giving the commission a new title of Social Justice Commission, to reflect the equal opportunities at the core of the commission’s work. 

‘Healing great social divides’

Mr Halfon said: “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. 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.”

The MP will put the bill forward during a 10-minute-rule motion, a process whereby an MP makes a case for a new bill in a speech lasting up to 10 minutes.

An opposing speech may also be made. MPs then decide whether or not the bill should be introduced, and if successful, it then has its first reading in the Commons.  

Mr Halfon added: “Support for our bill will be the first step in bolstering the commission. 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.”

The bill also outlines a plan for a minimum membership for the commission of eight members, including the chair. In December, the commission was left with no members after the chair and Labour former cabinet minister Alan Milburn resigned alongside deputy chair Baroness Shephard and two other commissioners.