Speeches by McFadden.

“As I said, earlier this spring we announced the expansion of youth hubs to all planned areas and the launch of phase one of the jobs guarantee for the long-term unemployed, first in six areas and later to the whole country. From today, we are rolling out expanded employment support for young people on universal credit …”

“I believe that these youth hubs are applicable to every part of the United Kingdom. Well done to the organisation in Glengormley that the hon. Member mentioned. Of course, the Northern Ireland Executive has its own funding, too, and many matters are devolved. But wherever young people are in the United Kingdom, I want …”

“The Dartford youth hub is scheduled to open in the next financial year, and it will bring together a range of support. Youth hubs include mental health support, housing support, and skills and career opportunities all in one place. The whole idea is that people do not lives their lives according to departmental boundar…”

“My hon. Friend raises an important point. As I said, we recognise that transport can be a real barrier for young people in rural areas, so we have designed youth hubs to be flexible and to work with local partners on tailoring delivery for what works best in each area. That can include offering more flexible opening ho…”

“My hon. Friend is right, and I thank Cardiff football club for being a partner. We are supporting nearly 1 million young people and creating up to half a million opportunities for jobs and training. We are doing that by providing incentives for employers to hire, promoting apprenticeships and delivering a whole range o…”

“We are making strong progress on expanding youth hubs, with around 130 already in operation across Great Britain. In March, I announced the locations that we want to open in this year, and I have just announced a further 180 locations for the following two years. The areas involved, including Harlow, Cardiff, Dartford …”

“I thank my hon. Friend not only for her question but for the wonderful work she has done and the advice she has given me on closing the disability employment gap and championing the rights of partially sighted people. She asks about access, which is important. Alongside our jobcentre network, we have mobile jobcentre v…”

“The hon. Member raises an important issue. Whenever I discuss youth unemployment and opportunity with MPs, they often identify transport links as a barrier. We are capping single bus fares at £3 on thousands of routes in England outside London until March 2027, but I believe that there is more that we can and should do…”

“Since our last DWP questions, both Alan Milburn and the Pensions Commission have published their respective interim reports on young people and on the current state of saving for retirement. I look forward to receiving their final reports later in the year. Earlier this month, I visited the Netherlands to see the impre…”

“My hon. Friend has raised an important point. This has to be a joint effort between the Government and employers. We had a great roundtable at No. 10 this morning with employers who are committed to expanding youth opportunity, and I have visited Merlin, an important leisure and hospitality business, which has agreed t…”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend on being a fantastic champion for Stafford and her constituents. The youth guarantee will help young people in her constituency through hiring incentives, apprenticeship changes and more work experience placements. I know that she will work with me and the rest of Government to be a champi…”

“The hon. Member raises an important question, which young people themselves are alive to. AI is an all-purpose technology; it will both destroy and create jobs. The leadership task is to ensure that this country is best placed to use the technology and is a good home for investment in it, as well as ensuring that AI ad…”

“I encourage local businesses in the hon. Lady’s constituency to look at the new incentives available from tomorrow. They can access a hiring incentive of £3,000 to help them with the cost of taking on a young person, provided that person has been out of work for six months or more. We want to do that in partnership wit…”

“I welcome my hon. Friend’s question. The report published today is really important, and it shows the lack of opportunity for white working-class children at schools. Our agenda of maximum opportunity for young people and of not letting people drop out and be left behind is really important in getting more opportunity …”

“Yes, it has been devolved. When you devolve something, there are lots of really important strengths and advantages to that, but one of the things is that capacity will differ a little bit in local areas around the country, and in the first year it can take a while to stand up. I think the figure was that 14,000 or 16,0…”

“I totally agree that if you can get people into work, it does not just save money; it changes life stories, and that is a really important thing to do. In numbers, the simplest picture of this was in Charlie Mayfield’s report “Keep Britain Working”, which used the figure of £1 million—if you can get a young person into…”

“It will depend a bit on performance. It will speed up this year because we spent the first year standing it up. More people are now joining it more quickly, and I hope and expect that will continue. There is a really important concept here, which is that we want to bring to an end the era of being signed off and writte…”

“Zooming out from the question, it will always be for the electorate, not Ministers, to mark the report card.”

“Thank you very much. Before I come to your question, I should perhaps draw the Committee’s attention to the fact that this will be Sir Peter’s last appearance before you. I would like to begin today’s session by placing on record my thanks to Sir Peter for his many years’ service to the civil service as a whole but in …”

“I have been there for nine months. The job of the Department has several headings. Of course, it is a critical part of the welfare state. It is there to support those who rely on its help, whether they are pensioners, children, the unemployed, the sick and disabled, and so on. The Department does that on the whole well…”