Jobs Market

Lord Austin of Dudley Excerpts

Thursday 5th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

I am, of course, very much a glass-half-full type of person, but one of the core reforms that the Government put through in the Employment Rights Act was to ensure that zero-hours contracts do not drive standards to the bottom. We are about rewarding good employers and ensuring that they are not undercut by bad employers through mechanisms such as zero-hours contracts.

[Lord Austin of Dudley (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, the last Labour Government in which I was a Minister made huge strides in reducing long-term youth unemployment, but tragically we are in a situation now where we have a million young people not in education, training or work. If there is one thing a Labour Government should be about, it is opening up opportunities and providing jobs for young people. This should be the Government’s number one priority, and they should be talking about it every single day of the week. Therefore, can the Minister update the House on what the Government are doing to massively expand the number of public sector apprenticeships, to set an example to employers in other sectors, and to ensure that companies and organisations which benefit from public sector procurement are massively increasing the number of apprenticeships they provide as well?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

I completely agree with the noble Lord’s assessment about the importance of tackling youth unemployment. Indeed, we have set a bold new target of two-thirds of young people participating in higher-level learning, whether academic, technical or through an apprenticeship, by age 25. Indeed, as the House heard from my noble friend Lady Smith of Malvern earlier, we have a youth guarantee, and we have Alan Milburn leading an investigation into the cause of NEET, and he is working at pace. There will be an interim report in the spring and a report with recommendations in the summer. We are taking this very seriously and we will act on it.