Speeches by Kendall.

“I thank my right hon. Friend for his question. Our 16,000 work coaches and other frontline jobcentre staff are our biggest asset. Some have worked for the DWP for 25 or 30 years, because they care about their communities. They have been stifled by a system that had an overwhelming focus on monitoring and administering …”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question. Northern Ireland has one of the highest rates of economic inactivity in the United Kingdom, which is a real concern for me, and, I am sure, for him. I have already spoken to the Minister responsible. There are things happening in Northern Ireland that we can look at to see w…”

“I personally believe that we need to start much younger than 18, with good work experience and careers advice in schools. I have certainly seen that in my constituency; even in primary schools, teachers have brought in people with different jobs, in different professions, to open children’s eyes and minds to the possib…”

“The hon. Lady raises a really important point. We have a clear manifesto commitment to review universal credit, tackle poverty and make work pay. That issue has been raised a lot with me and the Minister for Social Security and Disability. I am sure that he will look closely at that. We need our benefits system to matc…”

“It is hugely important that we deliver these new opportunities in every part of the country, including to people of all ages in Scotland. We will work with the Scottish Government on that, but also, really importantly, with local councils, who have a huge role to play. Our jobcentres really need to change. They need to…”

“If I have time.”

“My hon. Friend will know of our plans to make work pay, bring in day one employment rights, end exploitative zero-hours contracts and improve flexibility at work. We need to do all those things to make sure that there are good-quality job options out there for young people. There will be new leadership roles for mayors…”

“Of course businesses face these pressures, but I think many of them understand that the Government have to look at the fundamentals. We faced a problem with the public finances when we got into government. My right hon. Friend the Chancellor took the decision that the only way we could sort out the country for the long…”

“My hon. Friend hits the nail on the head. The “Get Britain Working” White Paper is part of a much wider series of reforms that the Government are making to create more good jobs in every part of the country, including in green energy, through our modern industrial strategy, and through our plans, in the new deal for wo…”

“As I have said to other hon. Members, I am keen to talk to businesses right across the country, including in the hon. Gentleman’s constituency, about the challenges that they face. We took a decision when we got into office that we could not continue with the fantasy economics. We cannot spend more than we earn. We hav…”

“I am absolutely determined to get more people into better-paid jobs in every part of the country. That is the key to improving people’s living standards and to getting the economy growing again. Our new jobs and careers service will look different in Scotland because the Scottish Government are responsible for running …”

“I have always been a big champion, including when I worked in social care, of working in partnership with people to get the decisions right first time. That is really important, which is why the Minister for Social Security and Disability and I are absolutely clear that we will work with disabled people in the relevant…”

“Yes, this review has two phases. The first phase is very much focusing on reforms of the pension system to ensure greater investment in UK PLC. The second stage of the review will be looking at future outcomes, including pension adequacy, as well as further investment in UK markets. To tell a broad story here, when we …”

“I hope that by setting out what I think is wrong indicates the issues that I want to put right.”

“Thank you for that question. This is something that I am very focused on. There will be some more about it in our Get Britain Working White Paper but also in the coming months. We have argued for a long time that the work capability assessment is not working and that it needs to be reformed or replaced, alongside a pro…”

“What the Permanent Secretary says is very important. We must go to where people are, not tell them to come to us. There is no one who is hard to reach: we are just rubbish at reaching them.”

“First, the Department for Education is reforming the apprenticeship levy so that we have a clear focus on young people and also what they call foundation apprenticeships that are the basic skills you are talking about, so that we can make sure people have the skills they need to get onto an apprenticeship. That is extr…”

“Firstly, when you only have one in six employers ever using the job centre to recruit and that falls to only one in 10 of small and medium sized companies, that is not good enough. We need to work more closely with employers. In places such as Greater Manchester they are already doing great stuff. They have people who …”

“I think this is the biggest employment challenge that we face. Although we have seen some changes in the latest statistics, unemployment, official unemployment, is still low by historic standards. However, we have seen this worrying increase in the number of people who are what is termed “economically inactive”. In a w…”

“No, we do not have a target for each month.”