YouSaid · the spoken record
Pat McFadden
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On the record 2005–2026
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“It will apply to young people between the ages of 18 and 24. The hiring bonus will be available from this summer, and we will look at having a retention mechanism so that people are not hired one day and let go the next.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I think employers want to do the right thing—they want to give young people a chance. My hon. Friend asks whether the incentives can be stacked, and the answer is yes. For example, if a small or medium-sized enterprise wants to take on a young apprentice who has been unemployed and on universal credit for six months or more, it can claim both the £2,000 apprenticeship incentive and the £3,000 hiring bonus. That sends a strong signal to business, and it is why the Federation of Small Businesses has called this a game-changer, just as my hon. Friend did. It sends a strong signal about giving young people a chance, which is exactly what I think small and medium-sized businesses want to do.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“All those things should be good for the small businesses, particularly those in the hospitality sector, in his constituency.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Member mentioned his career in washing up, and let me tell him that we have that in common, because one of my first jobs was as a dishwasher in what I believe was Scotland’s first Mexican restaurant, Viva Mexico. I inherited that job from the current First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney, the previous dishwasher in that restaurant, so we can be the three founding members of a national union of dishwashers. The hon. Member asked for my message to employers in his constituency. It is to look at this package and avail themselves of the support in it—hiring bonuses for young unemployed people, specific help for small and medium-sized enterprises when hiring a young apprentice, and foundation apprentices for retail and hospitality industries.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend makes the very important point that a significant proportion of the 1 million young people not in education, employment or training are not claiming benefits at all, and not signing on for standard universal credit or the health element. One way in which we want to reach those young people is through the expansion of our youth hub programme, which gives them a chance to come into a place—often a sports or community institution—and get a range of help on the health front, the housing front and the work-finding front, because young people do not live their lives according to Whitehall departmental boundaries, and why should they? It is up to us to tailor the help to the way they live their lives, and get it to them in the places where they want to be.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“These short courses or apprenticeship units are something that employers have called for. Until now the minimum length of time for an apprenticeship has usually been eight or 12 months, or something like that, but these can be for a matter of weeks. We will publish more information about them as soon as we can. The sectors, including AI, in which the first wave have been announced are all sectors in which we will need the skills of young people. We are trying to adapt the training offer that we fund to the needs of employers, and one way to do that is with more short courses.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Yes, of course. I want to work with the Scotland Office, the Scottish Government and anyone who can make an impact. I visited the Bellshill jobcentre in central Scotland just before Christmas. I was told by the area manager that over 40% of the young people on her caseload were on what was called the “health journey”. That should bring us up short. It should tell us and warn us about the stickiness and the long-term effects of a young person being off long-term on sickness benefits. We have to do more to get opportunity to those young people and help them into work. I hope the package I have brought forward today can help us to do that.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Obviously, I know the west midlands well and I know the passion that our Mayor, Richard Parker, has for expanding opportunity, offering more skills and more opportunities to young people. I work closely with him on that agenda. I do not believe we should set area against area. Of course I am concerned about youth unemployment in the west midlands. I can assure the hon. Gentleman that his constituents and mine, and those in every other constituency in the west midlands, can benefit from the proposals I have brought forward today.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I do not need any convincing about how great a city Glasgow is, and I will be going there very soon. My hon. Friend asks what this announcement will mean to young people in his constituency and the city of Glasgow. The hiring bonuses I have announced today will be available all over the country, as will the subsidised job—25 hours a week at minimum wage rates for six months for young people who have been unemployed for 18 months or more—precisely to give young people not just a wage but the sense of pride and purpose that comes with having a job. I hope that that gives hope to the young people in Glasgow. It is hope that we need to give to young people all around the United Kingdom.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I welcome the hon. Lady’s—somewhat limited—support for the announcement, but she is right that we need to support young people in the workplace. There is perhaps a touch of nostalgia about some of the comments about young people not being work-ready, because that was the traditional role of youth apprenticeships. When the ladder is kicked away from them, it is no wonder that more young people are not work-ready. We are changing that with this announcement, because we are re-emphasising the importance of youth apprenticeships. I hope she welcomes that part, too.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“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.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“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.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend and I had a great day in Bellshill just before Christmas; I am grateful to him for the visit, and to the staff at the local jobcentre for explaining to us both the work that they were doing. The programme I am announcing today offers hope to young people in his constituency; the £3,000 hiring bonus will be available throughout Scotland. Of course, apprenticeship funding is devolved, but I hope that the Scottish Government will provide the maximum opportunity for young people to combine an apprenticeship role with the hiring bonus, which is available to businesses across the country.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Tom Kerridge has achieved a great amount and done fantastic things. I was very pleased to meet him and talk to him about this package a few days ago, and I welcome his warm support for it. I agree with my hon. Friend on the response from those on the Opposition Front Bench. Young people throughout the country will have heard them dismiss the help that we are putting in place. If that is what the Opposition want to do, that is up to them, but we take a very different view. We want to give hope and opportunity to young people; we want to stop dismissing them; and we want to give them belief in their future. That is what this package is about.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We do not propose restricting the hiring bonus by sector, though my hon. Friend will have heard me list in my statement the areas covered by the new apprenticeship units—areas such as artificial intelligence, electric vehicle charging, infrastructure, solar panel installation, welding and so on. As regards the new short apprenticeship units, there are some specific areas that we are putting forward first.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“This package can make a big contribution towards that. As I have said, there are 50,000 vacancies in manufacturing in the UK today. That is partly because of the difficulty that people have in finding skilled workers. With today’s extra help for apprenticeships for young people, we can begin to change that. That is why it is such an important part of this package.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“On the final question, I agree with my hon. Friend that this problem of young people not in education, employment or training is a long-term one that grew under the tutelage of the Conservative party, and about which it did precisely nothing. This statement and package is a different approach, with a very clear message behind it. Let us go out and sell it. That message is: we believe in Britain’s young people; we want to give them a better future; and we have a package of help to enable them to achieve that.”
House of Commons17 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Headline unemployment is below its average rate under the previous Government, and inactivity is falling as more people actively seek work. Some 381,000 more people have moved into work over the past year. However, there is a long-term challenge in youth unemployment, which we are responding to through the youth guarantee, more youth apprenticeship starts and other measures.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Member will be aware of the national insurance tax break under which no employer national insurance contributions are payable for workers under 21, unless they earn more than £50,000, which not too many workers under the age of 21 do.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I did talk about unemployment. As I said, the unemployment figures are lower, on average, than when the hon. Gentleman’s party was in power. We are, of course, doing everything we can to help people into work, which is why I referred to the measures that we are taking, including the youth guarantee and increased apprenticeship starts. That is a much more active approach than the one carried out by the previous Government, who saw rising numbers of young people not in education, employment or training but did precisely nothing about it.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“As I said, no employer national insurance contributions are payable for workers under the age of 21, and we believe that workers should be decently paid for the work they do. We are responding to the particular challenge of youth unemployment, which I acknowledge is there, and was there when the Conservative party was in power, with active measures such as the youth guarantee and more youth apprenticeship starts. I remind the House that youth apprenticeship starts fell by 40% while the Conservatives were in power.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I congratulate the business club—such organisations play a valuable role in our constituencies. The hon. Lady asks what measures we are taking, and I am grateful to the Chancellor for the extra funding made available in the Budget for the youth guarantee. That will gives hundreds of thousands more training and work experience places to young people and, importantly, will provide funding for the long-term youth unemployed to gain six months’ work, paid at the national minimum wage for 25 hours a week, so that young people get used to the discipline and duty of turning up, doing a job, and experiencing the sense of pride and purpose that comes with having a job.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend asks an excellent question. The fact that net migration is falling to lower levels than we have seen for some time gives added urgency to a question that has often been posed: why do we not do more to train our own workers? That is precisely why I am prioritising youth apprenticeship starts, which fell by 40% under the previous Government. We must arrest that decline and ensure that we respond to the new situation of falling levels of net migration by training more of our own young people.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“What it will mean for young people in my hon. Friend’s constituency, and many others, is intensive work coach training, and the chance of training or work experience. If that does not get them into a job, ultimately it will mean a subsidised job, where they get six months of work experience, paid at the national minimum wage for 25 hours a week. The last thing we want is people leaving education and going on to a life on benefits.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am relieved to hear that the number of young people not in education, employment or training is dropping in Harlow. The number of such people rose by a quarter of a million in the last few years of the Conservative party’s time in government, and they did absolutely nothing about it. Bringing skills into the Department for Work and Pensions gives us the chance to bring skills policy and labour market policy closer together, to help young people get that vital chance of a first job.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I believe this may be the first time that the hon. Member has appeared at the Dispatch Box in his capacity as shadow Minister—if I am wrong about that, I am sorry; but if I am right, I welcome him to his position. He asks about the forecast for the future. It was published alongside the spring statement a couple of weeks ago, and in it the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast employment to rise in every year of the forecast period.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Whatever Department I am in, I hear the same question from the Liberal Democrats. They support all the extra spending that is funded by revenue-raising measures, but they oppose all the revenue-raising measures themselves. If the hon. Gentleman wants NHS waiting lists to fall and if he calls for more spending every week, then he has to support the revenue-raising measures that make that possible.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The statistics for the second half of 2024 show the scale of the situation that we inherited from the previous Government. The number of young people not in education, employment or training had increased by around 300,000 since 2021, but, unlike the last Government, we are doing something about that. Over three years, the Government will invest some £1.5 billion to improve opportunities for young people through both the youth guarantee and more youth apprenticeships. We are expanding the number of youth hubs to more areas of the country, and we aim to add about 50,000 more starts through the change to youth apprenticeships. That is in stark contrast to the situation we inherited.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am grateful to my hon. Friend for highlighting the valuable work of Wiseup Networks. He is absolutely right; work experience and mentoring can play a very important role in helping young people to find work. Confidence can be an issue for young people, so building that up is really important. I am happy to arrange a meeting between him and a Minister from this team.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting the excellent work of the David Nieper Academy in achieving NEET zero, and I congratulate it on doing so. She mentions the career service pathfinder in Wakefield, which was launched in April 2025. We are testing more personalised employment support, and evaluation is under way to understand how this approach works. It is right that we approach these matters with flexibility and innovation, and do not always do what we have always done.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I know that my hon. Friend has spoken movingly about his own experience with ADHD. I assure him that Alan Milburn, a former Health Secretary who is carrying out this report for us, is in regular contact with the chair and secretariat of the independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism, which is being carried out by the Department of Health and Social Care. More broadly, we should support young people, try to increase their confidence and ensure they do not conclude that a diagnosis means that they cannot work, because that should not be the conclusion reached. Many people who do have a diagnosis can go on to have very productive working lives.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend has spoken powerfully of how unemployment in her constituency has scarred generations. I assure her that the youth guarantee will become nationwide by the end of the year. We have to break the cycle of intergenerational unemployment that she has spoken about, and I share her desire to be more ambitious in that area. I am very happy to keep up a dialogue with her and to meet with her, or to have a fellow Minister in the team do so.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I suspect we could be here for some time talking about what the best service station in the country is, but I have to say that Rugby services, between London and Wolverhampton, has taken things to another level. Gloucestershire Gateway Trust has helped create over 400 jobs for local residents. It continues to provide invaluable support, and I am very happy to take the opportunity to visit my hon. Friend’s constituency at some point—diary permitting, as they say.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The truth is that the Conservatives presided over a huge post-covid rise in the number of young people not in education, employment or training, and they did precisely nothing about it. They also presided over a huge rise in the number of young people going on to sickness and disability benefits and did precisely nothing about it. They have discovered a thirst for change only after leaving office—they have no credibility and no plan on this issue. In contrast, we are responding through the youth guarantee, through changes to the apprenticeship system, and by giving young people more hope that the Government will help give them a chance in life.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We do want to support jobseekers now. As I said, there is a long-term challenge with youth unemployment, which we are responding to through the measures I have outlined. If we can be more ambitious than those measures in the future, we very much will.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Gentleman will find that graduate unemployment is an international issue. If we want more non-higher education skills, he should support our plans to stop the decline that we saw in youth apprenticeship starts when his party was in power and to direct more money to youth apprenticeship starts. That is precisely what we will do.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Lady makes a good point. When we look at the total number of NEETs, within that is what we might regard as standard unemployment cases, a lot of health, sickness and disability cases and a significant number of young carers. One of the things we are doing is expanding childcare support through free breakfast clubs and extending the number of free hours so that we can support young parents to get into work after they have had a child.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We have a lot of dialogue with businesses about the nature of the growth and skills levy and how it is used. I have to say to the hon. Gentleman and to the House that we are making a choice to prioritise young people. It is precisely because the previous Government did not prioritise young people that we saw a 40% decline in apprenticeship starts. I do not think that is an argument for the status quo; it is an argument for change. That is the slogan upon which we were elected, and it is change to the system that we will bring.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Precisely because we are tilting the funding more towards youth apprenticeship starts, we will arrest the decline that happened when the hon. Lady’s party were in power. Change needs to come to the system if we want to do that, and I believe it is the right choice. The effect on young people who come off education and go on to benefits can be lifelong, so it is right that we prioritise them in the system.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The right hon. Alan Milburn is making progress on his report. He brings valuable experience as a former Secretary of State for Health and former chair of the Government’s Social Mobility Commission. He is engaging with stakeholders across the country to increase the understanding of what has driven the increase in NEETs in recent years, and his interim report is due later in the spring.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“My hon. Friend brings valuable experience to this matter, including his experience of teaching engineering apprentices at the University of Nottingham. We are committed to ensuring that disadvantaged young people have access to high-quality apprenticeships and can benefit from the new jobs being created in places such as Erewash as a result of the changes in how the growth and skills levy is used—as I have explained in response to earlier questions—and the extension of youth hubs in the region to give young people who may not be claiming benefit or undertaking an apprenticeship the chance of finding that vital first job.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Member has posed a very good and important question, and the issue of graduate unemployment is by no means confined to the UK. In the United States, for example, a similar debate about graduate unemployment is taking place. The truth is that structural developments are happening in the labour market. Technology is undergoing a big shift, and I think that all Governments must ask themselves how to help young people through this transition. The one thing that we cannot do is abandon them to it: we have to train people, and we have to ensure that the UK is best placed to take advantage of this big technological shift.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The Scottish unemployment rate is 3.8%, and overall economic inactivity in Scotland is higher than in the UK as a whole. However, I am pleased to say that Scotland has had the biggest increase in funding since devolution began. It will benefit from major defence contracts, including the £10 billion contract to build five new frigates for the Norwegian navy, and from the trade deals we have negotiated over the past year, which will be of particular benefit to Scotland’s whisky and food industries.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“That is of course a hugely important industry for the UK. The hon. Member will be aware that a transition is taking place, but oil and gas will be part of the mix for a long time to come. The Chancellor met those in the industry last week, and I assure the hon. Member and her constituents that the industry’s importance is recognised and hugely valued by the Government.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I very much agree with my hon. Friend’s final point. I think Anas Sarwar would make an excellent First Minister, and I look forward to supporting him in the campaign to come. The youth guarantee, to which I have referred, extends to Scotland. We want young people in Scotland to have as many opportunities and as good opportunities as young people anywhere else in the UK, and in particular not to fall into the pattern of leaving education and going on to a life on benefits.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“Since the last Work and Pensions questions, we have had Apprenticeships Week, when I visited Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead and London Underground’s Acton Works in west London. I attended the youth guarantee jobs fair in Blackpool, which connected over 3,000 local people with 90 employers; had a roundtable with business at which, for example, Make UK reported 50,000 vacancies in the engineering and manufacturing sectors; and we extended the Connect to Work programme to give employment support to more than 75,000 more people with disabilities or long-term sickness—people far too often in the past simply signed off and written off.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I appreciate the value of skills bootcamps. They can play an important role in the mix of policies we are talking about today. I hear the representations the hon. Lady has made for more funding. All I would say to her and her party is that if we have more funding, I hope they support whatever revenue-raising measures that have to be put in place for it.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“The hon. Member is right to point to the disparity of information that there sometimes is for apprenticeships compared with university courses. It is something that we need to address by improving the information available and ensuring that young people embarking on an apprenticeship are treated with just as much esteem and respect as those who undertake a university course. Information is very much part of the changes that we are pursuing.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for the retraining scheme that he is running for former Conservative MPs, although I am not convinced that a change of colour is really a change of heart. Let me come to the heart of his question. We do believe that if people have worked here and have contributed over the years, they are entitled to the benefits that the state provides. The logical conclusion of his position would be to deny that to many people who have lived and contributed here, sometimes for decades.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗
“We are all going to have busy diaries after this session. I pay tribute to the Cornish hospitality sector. My hon. Friend is right that those are great opportunities for young people, and I will make sure she gets a meeting with someone.”
House of Commons9 March 2026Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0Source ↗