Speeches by Ali.

“Dr Miranda, do you have anything to add very quickly? We are running out of time.”

“What percentage are unqualified?”

“I have a couple of quick-fire questions about what it would take in terms of money. On top of what the Government are doing, and with the scale of the problem, what additional investment is going to be required to shift things dramatically, to get to a point where we see the numbers of NEETs go down? What would you say…”

“This has been fascinating; thank you very much. You have touched on some of this already, but could you add anything about the difference that cross-Government strategies have made to youth employment? Norway and Denmark stand out. The German example is very long-term in terms of evidence and practice. What can we lear…”

“Thank you very much. I am going to move on to the next question and start with you, Dr Erickson; feel free to add any points you want to make on the previous question. One of our witnesses suggested that the UK Government should set a target to have the lowest rate of young people not in education, employment or traini…”

“I have one final question. I was really struck by what you said about hope and the converse of that: hopelessness. I came to see you when you were doing the social mobility review, and I was starting up an organisation with my constituents to get employers involved in schools, helping to build confidence and the social…”

“I would be very interested in knowing that. It is really important for us on this Committee and as parliamentarians to be able to push the Government to redirect funding where it is in the wrong places—I think successive Governments make that mistake—and then to push for additional resources, if we are serious about th…”

“In the breakdown of the number of young people who are NEETs, 448,000 are women. That often does not come through. I think that when people think of NEETs, they tend to have an assumption that it is mainly young men, but of course the rest are young women. In terms of the labour market, Kate Nicholls and others have ta…”

“Q4. This Labour Government’s £29 billion of investment in the NHS and £2 billion in life sciences is critical to fixing our NHS and tackling health inequalities. The Barts life sciences cluster in Whitechapel will become one of Europe’s leading NHS-centred clusters, and we have already secured £800 million in private i…”

“Q13. Between 2010 and 2024, the number of children living in poverty increased by 700,000, with Tower Hamlets having one of the highest rates in the country. This Labour Government’s child poverty strategy will lift over half a million children out of poverty. Given the economic pressures caused by external shocks and …”

“I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. She rightly highlights the important contribution that carers make to our country and the savings of £184 billion a year. The carer’s allowance scandal that this Government have had to deal with, which has taken place over a number of years, has parallels…”

“I draw the Minister’s attention to a point about reassessment made in yesterday’s Guardian: “the government has admitted its existing ‘business as usual’ overpayment recovery policies will be maintained while a full overhaul of the benefit is completed, in effect ensuring that carer’s allowance penalties will continue …”

“I welcome the Prime Minister’s call for Lebanon to be included in the ceasefire—1,700 people have already been killed by Israeli attacks and 1.1 million people have been displaced. At a time when aid budgets have been cut, including by our own Government, will the Prime Minister commit to playing that international lea…”

“Wendy, did you want to add anything on this question?”

“The increase in state pension age from 66 to 67 was legislated in 2014, as you know. It starts in April and there is no mitigations in terms of additional social security support for that cohort. Do you think that there is a case for doing something now? How would you make that case?”

“Turning to the Government’s options, given the urgency of this issue, we know that there are some estimates suggesting that this particular change would save public spending about £10 billion, and the interventions to try to mitigate could range between £200 million and £600 million, depending on who is in scope and ho…”

“Going back to the Government’s options, given that April is not far away for 66 and 67-year-olds, do you have suggestions on what the Government could do quickly to mitigate? Given that a number of people will be pushed into poverty, is there anything specific that you think the Government should be doing or could be d…”

“So thinking about just the 66-to-67 cohort and the pension age changing.”

“I welcome the Rycroft review and, in particular, the Secretary of State’s commitment to take action on crypto donations and to cap foreign donations from overseas donors. I want to draw his attention to the comment in the report that the debate on social media “seeks to exacerbate division and increase polarisation wit…”

“Anyone else?”