Youth Unemployment

Lauren Edwards Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2026 Commons Chamber

[Pat McFadden]

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 get more help and support to young people with disabilities, in order to give them the confidence and the opportunity that a job can bring.

[Lauren Edwards (Rochester and Strood) (Lab)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his statement. As someone who represents an area where more than 90% of businesses are SMEs, I particularly welcome the financial incentives for SMEs to take on young apprentices in the key industries of hospitality and retail. Demand for apprenticeships has been high for some time, so I welcome the Government’s recognition that supply-side incentives were needed to provide opportunities for young people in areas like mine. However, SMEs lack HR departments, and when I speak to business owners, they talk a lot about the complexity of engaging with the system. How will the Secretary of State make the system simpler for SMEs to engage with, so that we can give young people the opportunities that they desperately need?

[Pat McFadden]

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 is also right that clarity of information is important. Schemes like this can be complex, so I want to work with officials to make the information about this one, and the administration of it, as clear and simple as possible—consistent, of course, with the need to properly use and protect public money.