Speeches by Nandy.

“I do not, I’m afraid.”

“What I would say from a political point of view is that I had understood that that inquiry, which opened in the middle of May, would conclude within a matter of weeks. It is obviously having real-world consequences that that has not yet concluded, and I am very keen that we are able to move forwards as quickly as possi…”

“Yes. One of the things we did with the National Youth Strategy—the first National Youth Strategy in decades—was establish it in a completely different way so that it is led by young people. We put them in the driving seat, we established the youth board, as the Committee will know, and the existing youth team in my Dep…”

“I was making the point about quantity and quality, but I will focus very much on your point about time online, because that is a significant concern to parliamentarians and parents all over the country, including me. I am not suggesting that the upwards trend in terms of time that is spent online is a solely UK phenome…”

“Having been a councillor myself and worked very hard to try to deal with a budget that fell short on almost every front, I am sceptical about national Governments handing new responsibilities to councils without the funding to match. The reality of that statutory protection for youth services—although it sounds very at…”

“I can get you the precise figures, but that is the headline figure[1]. There was a 78% reduction in youth spend over the time that the last Government was in office; that has obviously had a major impact on the places that young people can go. But there is a global trend around this: young people are spending more time…”

“It absolutely is. Without undermining the incredible work that Minister Bryant did, that was my request as the Secretary of State. As you would imagine with Minister Bryant, the 10-point plan for music then became a 110-point plan for music, but we are working at pace to make sure we are in a position to announce somet…”

“This is something that you and I have discussed before, Natasha, and I absolutely take the point that having a very local grassroots offer cannot be at the expense of having a universal offer that young people can access wherever they are in the country. You made that point very compellingly and I have really absorbed …”

“I do not want to pre-empt the National Youth Strategy, but one of the things we have been debating with the young people who are driving it is: do we set a target around that? If we do, do we set it as an internal or an external target? The reason they are a little reluctant is that they would like to see many of these…”

“I have discussed this extensively with the director general and with the chair. We are keen to ensure that the BBC is able to maximise the amount of commercial revenue it receives. But I have to be honest with the Committee: the scope for that will never match the funding needs that the BBC has and there will always be…”

“I have had particular concerns raised with me by parliamentarians about the appearance of Nigel Farage presenting news programmes on GB News. That is a fair criticism from Members of Parliament of all political parties, because the public have a right to know if what they are seeing is news and is impartial or not. One…”

“Yes, of course, and I am very confident that, as with the previous Foreign Secretary, there will be a very strong recognition of the role that the BBC World Service plays around the world, particularly in relation to an environment in which other foreign states are investing heavily in their own state broadcasters and …”

“One of the things we have discovered through the state of the nation report and the consultation—the conversation we have been able to have with young people—is that actually the online world and the real world are not separate. There are problems, huge challenges, facing young people in terms of the physical spaces in…”

“Of course.”

“I was. As you all know, it was a difficult spending review. We inherited a difficult financial environment, and our sectors are often vulnerable in that sort of situation. I was really pleased that we were able to come out roughly flat in terms of our spending settlement—around £9 billion over the spending review perio…”

“It is a question that we are debating; I would be happy to take suggestions from the Committee.”

“Yes. The financial situation facing the country is still very challenging and we are going to have to make trade-offs and choices. At the moment, we are looking at that through business planning and I have met with several members of the Committee and heard representations from many parliamentarians about their priorit…”

“You will all know that things in Government sometimes take a frustratingly long time. The charter review has to be concluded by the end of 2027 and we are very keen to ensure there is sufficient time for Parliament, the public and broadcast media to be part of a proper conversation around that. I have said before that …”

“It is a shared responsibility between DCMS and DFE. I have read the report and it makes a number of very helpful and powerful suggestions. It is something that I will discuss with the Education Secretary; I have not had an opportunity to discuss it with her yet, but I will. For our part we are obviously doing a lot in …”

“Most people in this country would believe that children have a right to play on our streets and that we should encourage that. One of the loveliest things I have ever seen is in a park in London near where I used to work for the Children’s Society, and adults are only allowed to enter if they are accompanied by a child…”