Speeches by McFadden.

“My hon. Friend will know that the number of young people not in education, employment or training rose by about a quarter of a million in the last three years of the Conservative party’s time in power, but that Government did nothing about it. We are putting in place a youth guarantee that offers training, work experie…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his question—I know that he takes a deep interest in this issue. There is an urgent need to help young people with the technological change that is taking place in the labour market. That is not just a British phenomenon; graduate unemployment in the United States went up from 5.3% to 5.7% in…”

“The OBR predicts that unemployment will peak this year and then fall in every year of the forecast—[Interruption.] Conservative Members disparage the forecast, but I gently remind them that disparaging the OBR did not work out too well for them a few years ago. In fact—to make a more serious point—the country is still …”

“I think employers want to do the right thing—they want to give young people a chance. My hon. Friend asks whether the incentives can be stacked, and the answer is yes. For example, if a small or medium-sized enterprise wants to take on a young apprentice who has been unemployed and on universal credit for six months or…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for his deep interest in this issue. I have visited his constituency, and I give a warm welcome to the apprentices from Peterborough who are in the Chamber today. He asked about supply chains and small and medium-sized businesses. Those businesses will benefit from the hiring bonus for a young ap…”

“I warmly welcome the Chancellor’s support for this package and the help that she has given me in putting it together. The right hon. Lady mentioned vacancies—there are about 700,000 vacancies in the economy, including 50,000 in manufacturing. I attended a jobs fair in Blackpool a couple of weeks ago, where almost 1,000…”

“The hon. Member mentioned his career in washing up, and let me tell him that we have that in common, because one of my first jobs was as a dishwasher in what I believe was Scotland’s first Mexican restaurant, Viva Mexico. I inherited that job from the current First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, the previous dishw…”

“I thank my hon. Friend and parliamentary neighbour for her question. I know Asda in Great Bridge. What a wonderful employment rate that is, after the programme. It gives hope to young people with learning disabilities, who should never be written off; there has been too much of that in the past. Part of our work is to …”

“Let me praise the magnificent industries in the Derby area, many of them manufacturing companies. As I said, there are 50,000 vacancies in manufacturing right now. What the trade bodies tell me is that they need help with skilling young people to take up those vacancies. That is precisely what will be made easier by th…”

“The rate of young people not in education, employment or training is, I believe, even higher in Scotland than it is in the UK as a whole. The hon. Member asks for more information on timescales. The hiring bonuses, for example, will be introduced from this summer, and the apprenticeship changes will be introduced from …”

“My hon. Friend makes the very important point that a significant proportion of the 1 million young people not in education, employment or training are not claiming benefits at all, and not signing on for standard universal credit or the health element. One way in which we want to reach those young people is through the…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for the enormous amount of work that he put into organising the successful Blackpool jobs fair, which I attended a few weeks ago. He is right that the evidence from that jobs fair is that the vacancies are there, with more than 1,000 jobs allocated on the day of the jobs fair itself. Hospitality …”

“As the right hon. Member knows, I have great respect for him. I am happy to reach out to upReach to speak about the work to which he refers. As I said a moment ago in response to another question, graduate unemployment is an international issue, not just one for the UK. There has also been an uplift in the United State…”

“These short courses or apprenticeship units are something that employers have called for. Until now the minimum length of time for an apprenticeship has usually been eight or 12 months, or something like that, but these can be for a matter of weeks. We will publish more information about them as soon as we can. The sec…”

“My hon. Friend is right that we have tried to put extra incentives in this package for small and medium-sized businesses. In particular, there is the hiring bonus for young apprentices, which is aimed at both young people and small businesses. I hope that will be of help to the small businesses in her constituency. She…”

“We do not propose restricting the hiring bonus by sector, though my hon. Friend will have heard me list in my statement the areas covered by the new apprenticeship units—areas such as artificial intelligence, electric vehicle charging, infrastructure, solar panel installation, welding and so on. As regards the new shor…”

“I thank my hon. Friend for drawing attention to the record of the last Labour Government. I have described this as a new deal for new times, and it does adapt some of the lessons that we have learnt in the past to today’s very changed labour market. She mentioned the importance of locally-led work. It is true that loca…”

“I agree that “NEET” is not the best and most user-friendly term, but it has been used for some time. As for the hon. Lady’s question about what is devolved and what is UK-wide, the hiring bonus will apply throughout the UK, but the apprenticeship aspects are devolved to Wales.”

“Yes, of course. I want to work with the Scotland Office, the Scottish Government and anyone who can make an impact. I visited the Bellshill jobcentre in central Scotland just before Christmas. I was told by the area manager that over 40% of the young people on her caseload were on what was called the “health journey”. …”

“I think that the statement offers hope to young people throughout the United Kingdom. I look forward to a positive and close working relationship between the UK and Welsh Governments on this issue, because I believe that both Governments share a desire for young people, in Clwyd North and everywhere else in the country…”