Speeches by McFadden.

“The hon. Lady is absolutely right that mobility and public transport are essential in helping people to get to work. On the specifics of her question, the best thing that I can do is to get the Department for Transport to write to her with a proper response.”

“I opened the Neath opportunity hub in south Wales in October, and I announced further funding of £10 million for the trailblazer covering that area. Alan Milburn is doing important work in reporting on the whole issue of young people in activity and work. The thing that unites these efforts is the belief that work is g…”

“I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for raising this issue. Ever since he came into this House, including in his maiden speech, he has made a powerful case on behalf of carers and children with disabilities. He makes the critical point that we should not give up on anyone. He is right that not all the conditions that are i…”

“Since the new year we have had the first expressions of interest from firms that want to participate in the youth guarantee scheme. We have announced our intention to change benefit entitlement for people in mental health hospitals who have been convicted of serious violent crimes. We have announced reforms to the disa…”

“My hon. Friend raises a number of issues. As I said, we are setting up the unit that Sir Charlie recommended, and I very much hope that it will work with academic expertise across the country. Her initial point about this being a win-win for employers is important, because if an employer lets someone go, they lose that…”

“Last week I met Sir Charlie Mayfield, author of the “Keep Britain Working” report, to discuss progress. He reported that more than 100 employers are now onboard to act as vanguards, including British Airways, Sainsbury’s, Holland and Barrett, and a number of smaller employers. The aim is to develop a healthy life cycle…”

“It is important that the welfare state is there to support disabled people. Too often in the past, disabled people have been signed off and written off. The state has paid benefits, but has not done enough to help disabled people into work, so we are now expanding employment support for the long-term sick and disabled …”

“The youth guarantee scheme will be delivered across Great Britain. That includes the jobs guarantee scheme, which I mentioned earlier. From the spring, we will provide more than 1,000 fully subsidised jobs in six areas across the UK, including central and east Scotland, ahead of the national roll-out, which will come l…”

“People want to stand for my party, but people want to leave the hon. Lady’s, and they are doing that day by day. We want to give hope to young people. That is why we have put the youth guarantee in place and we are changing the apprenticeship system: she could have done those two things while she was in office, while t…”

“Let me congratulate my hon. Friend on the fantastic work that he has done in campaigning for the investments in and around his constituency. Major infrastructure investments such as Sizewell should be an opportunity for local employment and training and for increasing the skills of local people, and we want our youth g…”

“What I have to say to those young people is that the rise in graduate inactivity happened under the last Government. Economic inactivity is down by 450,000 since the last election. There is a critical problem—the hon. Lady is right—in NEET numbers, which have been rising for four years. The difference is that we are do…”

“My hon. Friend will have heard me refer to the youth guarantee being a GB-wide scheme, so it will help people in Scotland. She will agree with me when I point out that the Scottish Government have had the most generous financial settlement since devolution was introduced, and I would hope that some of that would go tow…”

“I have had a number of discussions, including with victims’ families. It is important to stress that if someone is sentenced to a psychiatric hospital, their care and maintenance is paid for by the state in any case. We therefore propose a change to the previous system that will stop the build-up of—in some cases—large…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend and everyone involved in Team Derby on their excellent training and employment record. Around 40% of all apprenticeship starts are in small and medium-sized employers and they will benefit from the £725 million in funding that we announced at the Budget, which includes fully funding SME ap…”

“It is very nice to see the Conservative Front Bench here—you can never be sure these days who is going to be turning up on the opposite side, Mr Speaker. I take it from the shadow Minister’s question that she is against youth hubs, but I have to remind her that the initiative began under her Government; we have expande…”

“I will certainly visit the Isle of Wight if I can—diary permitting. The issue he raises about confidence is crucial. When I speak to our work coaches, time and again they say that building the confidence of young people to get out there, to apply for things and to go into new and unfamiliar circumstances is a critical …”

“I very much agree that the welfare state should be there to help people to change their circumstances, not just to keep them in their circumstances. I am pleased to report that we have now put in place the crisis and resilience fund, which will help people in the most desperate circumstances, and we have guaranteed its…”

“All the beautiful locations the hon. Member mentioned tempt me to offer a visit. I echo his thanks to the people who work in Kendal jobcentre and the other jobcentres around the country. The issue of transport and distances is an important one, which is why the Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, my ri…”

“I thank the hon. Member for his question. I am aware of the employment and growth generated by Bicester Village as a major retail and visitor location, and I understand his representations about having a youth hub that may be associated with that. We will look at all representations, because, as I said, we want to get …”

“I thank the Chair of the Select Committee for her question. We estimate that the measure will lift 450,000 children out of relative poverty, and 550,000 for the strategy as a whole. She is absolutely right to say that, having published the strategy, we will bring forward the legislation and monitor its impact right acr…”