Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of regional variation in the proportion of young people who are not in education, employment or training; and whether they intend to give local leaders greater powers to tailor employment and skills provision to local labour market conditions.

DWP regularly publishes statistics on young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) by region in their ‘The Get Britian Working: Labour Market Insights’ publication on GOV.UK.

DfE regularly publishes statistics on NEETs in England and statistics on 16–17-year-old NEETs by local authority, which can be found in the Explore education statistics on GOV.UK.

Local leaders across Great Britain are well placed to understand their local labour market, build connections with employers, and help knit together local services tailored to their local labour market conditions.

That is why:

We have devolved approximately 68% of the £1.4bn a year Adult Skills Fund (ASF) to 13 areas. In these areas, the relevant authority is responsible for the provision of ASF-funded adult education for their residents and allocation of the ASF to learning providers.

We have delegated delivery of Supported Employment (Connect to Work) across England and Wales, including in the Integrated Settlements for Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities. This totals an overall investment of £1bn. The recently published official statistics for Connect to Work show that 26% of the people who started on the Connect to Work programme in 2025/26 were aged 16-24.

We are piloting devolved funding through our 17 Economic Inactivity and Youth Guarantee Trailblazers, giving selected Mayoral Strategic Authorities and the Welsh Government high-level objectives so they can design their own approach (up to £245m over 25/26 and 26/27).

We are also establishing Youth Hubs in over 360 locations over the next 3 years so that all young people aged 16-24 – including those not on benefits – can access opportunities and wider support in every local area of Great Britain. Youth Hubs will bring together employability support from work coaches with local partners from mental health, skills and the voluntary sector, working closely with Mayors and local authorities to deliver joined-up community-based support.

We also recognise the crisis of participation that Alan Milburn has so clearly laid out in his interim report. We will use this interim report to continue to build our reforms and look forward to final recommendations in the Autumn.