Chris Pond, the Parliamentary Under Secretary at the Department of Work and Pensions in the UK, is a typical (I was going to say 'new') Labour politician.
But the Labour Party in the UK has long lost its 'new' image and is now very much establishment. What I mean by typical Labour is that, although Mr Pond is implementing tough decisions as Under Secretary, he is 'user friendly'. Labour in Government in the UK knows how to sweeten the pill.
I met Mr Pond at the British High Commission in Ta' Xbiex, where, over tea and biscuits together with the British High Commissioner, Vincent Feane, he explained the objective of his visit to Malta and a little bit of the working of his department.
Mr Pond has a substantial ministerial portfolio which includes: Housing Benefit; Council Tax Benefit; International Relations; European Union Business; Social Fund; Debt Management Policy; Fraud; Methods of Payment Reform; the Euro; Income Support (Working Age); Jobseekers Allowance; Better Buildings; and Pensions Legislation.
And he is lead in the House of Commons on the Child Support Agency; Poverty and Social Exclusion; and Green Issues.
On Thursday Mr Pond, on behalf of the British Government, signed a joint declaration with Lawrence Gonzi, Acting Prime Minister, on behalf of the Maltese Government. The two governments have declared to co-operate further on national strategies for employment and social protection, through exchanges of experiences and best practice.
I asked Mr Pond to expand on what the declaration actually meant.
Both governments are committed to The Lisbon Agenda - the EU's strategic goal for the next decade: "to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion".
Which means one of the priorities is ensuring "inclusive" job creation. "The challenges for both our countries in this area are very similar," said Mr Pond.
Other than the 'traditional' working person, single parents and older people who want to work should have the opportunity to do so. Therefore governments will be providing the necessary training and support, and challenging discrimination.
He said that the Malta experience with supporting the disabled to work was ahead of, and very useful to Britain. They have started pilot exercises in the UK to bring the disabled into the labour market.
Mr Pond talked about the "new deal" for lone parents in the UK, which involved a very intensive programme of providing support in the way of advice, childcare and training. The British government is investing heavily in child care. A project "Sure Start" operates in most communities providing child care and health provision for under fives.
Children's centres for three- to four-year-olds will provide early years education and will focus on parents needs.
Mr Pond also spoke about the EU social fund, which is mainly directed at employment and training, and said that his department would be providing assistance with social fund applications to the Maltese government.
He mentioned an example of a social fund project in the UK where computers were recycled - providing training for the people who were renovating the computers.
The benefits were threefold - environmental by recycling, training for employment and the revamped computers were donated to non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
The social fund was also used to give children the opportunity to master computer skills and computer links were established with the enlargement countries to better cultural understanding and enhance the concept of free movement.
Mr Pond spoke about job seekers' "rights and responsibilities". The job seeker has the right to advice and support. For example, an advisor would help somebody in debt.
However, the job seeker has the responsibility to be prepared to apply for jobs and not refuse jobs without good reason.
Job seekers must also be prepared to travel to their place of work. He talked about the need to tackle the adult literacy/numeracy problem, which affected one in five in the UK. An incentive in the form of a cash bonus is offered to people who take on upgrading skills.
Older people are being encouraged to retire at 70, adding five years to their productivity. The incentive is that when they reach 70, they will be entitled to an additional six per cent per annum to their state pension.
"Two billion sterling are lost to fraud and error", Mr Pond told me, answering a question on how fraud is being tackled. His target is to make a dent in that figure by 2006 and cut it by half over the next eight years.
They now have a sophisticated investigative system to detect abuse. I asked Mr Pond about the most frequent form of fraud. In the UK, organised crime in the form of stolen pension books and forging of other documentation entitling bearers to Income Support is the main problem.
That is now being tackled by payments being directed to bank accounts. The whole process of benefits entitlement and payments is also being simplified. Whereas people used to queue at both the job centre and the income support office, they now have a one-stop shop. The buildings housing the centres are also being upgraded to make a better environment for users and staff.
At this point Mr Pond told me that he was impressed by the Job Centre in Zachary Street, Valletta.
Child poverty is another crucial issue Mr Pond is tackling. "In 1997 Britain was at the bottom of the list on child poverty in the EU. Our target is to half child poverty in the next 10 years and to have eliminated it in 20.
"We are doing this by providing tax credits for families with children and by increasing basic child benefit support."
The British Government is also tackling pensioner poverty by giving pensioners a winter fuel allowance and free television licences.