Youth Guarantee Scheme: Evaluation

Baroness Stedman-Scott Excerpts

Tuesday 13th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

Of course we do not want to displace the unemployment, but, as I suggested in responding to my noble friend, there is something particularly challenging and important about young people who do not even get the opportunity to get into the workforce and to have the chance of a successful future. That is why, although there will always need to be an age cut-off for a scheme, the youth guarantee, with its additional investment from the Budget and its focus on support from school onwards, will be effective in getting young people into the workplace, and keeping them there when they get to the age of 25 or 26 as well.

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

My Lords, the policies of the Government in relation to the Employment Rights Act and the implications of the tax increases are directly undermining opportunities for young people. In all seriousness, will the Minister urge colleagues in the Treasury and the Department for Business and Trade to reconsider these choices? If the Minister is going to go to the Treasury, I have no doubt that there are people in this Chamber who would be very happy to go with her to try to make the case.

[Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)]

The noble Baroness, even when partly incapacitated, is always forthright in her questions—I wish her good luck with her recovery.

If it were the activities of this Government that were responsible for youth unemployment and the numbers of young people not earning and learning, we would not have inherited the frankly disgraceful levels of young people not earning and learning at the point at which we came into government. The difference is that, in our case, we have been to the Treasury; we have got from the Chancellor an investment of £1.5 billion into the youth guarantee, to help young people back into work, and to ensure that we can provide 50,000 more apprenticeships for young people. That is the effective way to ensure that young people get the opportunity to start their working lives in the way that we would all want them to.