Oral Answers to Questions

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Monday 12th October 2026 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

I will add the summit to the list of places to go. I would dearly love to visit my hon. Friend’s constituency, and if I cannot, I will ensure that one of my colleagues does. On the point of substance that he raises, the problem of youth inactivity in the country has built up over many years, and not enough has been done about it in the past. We now have the youth guarantee, which is investing in the issue. We know that there is more that we must do, which is why we are looking forward to the final report from Alan Milburn in a few weeks’ time.

[Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

When it comes to youth unemployment, it sounds like the Secretary of State has his head very firmly in the sand. Did he not hear Member after Member from across this House stand up and quote how the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training has gone up under this Government? The Secretary of State quotes back to us the national figures for people in employment overall, but that is because the population has gone up. What are the NEET figures? In Gosport, the number of young people not in education, employment or training has gone up by 23% under this Government. That is all because of the number of taxes that are being put on the businesses there to employ them, particularly the small businesses that provide the Saturday jobs and apprenticeships: hair and beauty, adult social care and care. What will Alan Milburn’s report say, and what is the Secretary of State actually going to do about it?

[Pat McFadden]

The truth is that it has been a problem for a long time. I repeat what I said to the shadow Secretary of State: under the Government that the hon. Lady supported, the number of NEETs went up by a quarter of a million between 2021 and 2024. She asks me what we will do, and in addition to the programmes I have announced, we recently announced a partnership with the British Retail Consortium to hire 100,000 young people not in education, employment or training over the next few years. The hon. Lady will be pleased to know that the latest Recruitment and Employment Confederation survey showed the strongest hiring sentiment in four years.