Andrew Western MP: speeches

Speeches

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I hope the hon. Gentleman appreciates that Milburn reported on Thursday, and recommendations from that report will not come for several months, but this is an important point and we will need a structure in place. I am committed to ensuring that this is a whole-of-Government intervention, but for the moment it is important to take time to get that right.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is absolutely right to recognise that many of the challenges faced by young people not in education, employment or training start at school or even preschool. We need to ensure that there is early intervention in schools, with more mental health practitioners available to children and young people, and that they can receive the support needed at the first possible opportunity, because mental ill health blights and affects their future, not just in academic terms with exams, but often for many years beyond that. I absolutely agree with her. That point underpins many of the proposals put forward in the Department for Education’s special educational needs reforms. We need early intervention and greater mental health support for children.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I do agree. I hope that my hon. Friend heard what I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) earlier about the need to work holistically, across Government and outside Government, with partners in the charitable sector, employment support companies and so on, to ensure that a range of interventions are available so that young people do not—exactly as she outlines—see a life not in education, employment or training as their future. That is something we must stop.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I can assure my hon. Friend that we are absolutely committed to delivering that holistic intervention and ensuring that all areas of the country see progress in this space. As colleagues would expect, we will particularly target those areas where this issue is the greatest problem, and if that includes her constituency, she will see some action.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend about the importance of place-based interventions. Of course—she sits next to my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool South (Chris Webb)—I am aware of the particular challenges facing coastal towns, and I will feed that request in. Whatever interventions we make, it is incredibly important that they are bespoke where needed and that they tackle this crisis in all parts of the country.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I can understand the hon. Gentleman’s trepidation, but I fear that he has not been made aware of the full range of activity before the 18-month intervention kicks in. This includes the addition of a reframed employment and skills review at two weeks and the maintenance of weekly appointments from weeks 3 to 12, with increased focus on personal support to address barriers to work. After three months, the specialist youth guarantee gateway kicks in, whereby young people are referred to one of six options, including sector-based work academy programmes, training, work experience and apprenticeships. At six months, the £3,000 youth jobs grant for employers recruiting young people kicks in. This is one part of a range of holistic interventions that we consider will make a significant difference to the challenge we face.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend raises an incredibly important point. As I have said in a number of answers, we need to work creatively and holistically with colleagues in the Department for Education and elsewhere to make sure we are joined up, so that there is an opportunity for all young people to find employment—whatever their background or their level of need. I look forward to working with him to deliver that.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  In the interests of time, I will follow up with my hon. Friend directly in writing.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  If it is okay with my hon. Friend, I will write to her specifically on the point about child trust funds, because it is not specifically in my domain. She is absolutely correct, though, to highlight the issue of school readiness and the link that that has to the likelihood of a child becoming a NEET when they turn 16. That is why, as I said in an earlier answer, the loss of Sure Start is such a tragedy, and that is why I am so pleased that this Government are reintroducing family hubs. On the bank of Mum and Dad, I hope that she heard the question that I answered earlier from my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North East (Damien Egan) about our intention to revolutionise work experience to ensure that it is not the opportunities that someone’s parents can provide them, but the opportunities that we can arrange that make a real and tangible difference and level the playing field.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  Last week, Alan Milburn produced a powerful report on the crisis of opportunity facing young people. The Secretary of State asked him to lead this work because it is a crisis that has been ignored for far too long. Far too many young people are leaving education and not getting the chance to work. The human and financial impact on individuals can last a lifetime, and the economic costs are significant. It is clear that this is not a feature of the last year or two but a deep-seated and long-term issue. Unlike the Conservatives, we will not stand back and abandon young people in the face of this crisis. During their last few years in power, the number of young people not in education, employment or training rose by a quarter of a million—a shameful legacy. Rather than holding young people in contempt, we believe in them. We are making opportunity for young people a national cause. We have begun with the youth guarantee, more work experience, workplace training and apprenticeships, hiring bonuses for employers who take on young people in regular or apprenticeship roles, and subsidised employment for young people who remain out of work for 18 months. That means, in total, half a million opportunities for young people to work, train or undertake apprenticeships. We have undertaken welfare reform to remove barriers in the benefits system that trap young people. We have changed the law so that claimants on sickness and disability benefits have the right to try work without the fear of automatically triggering a benefit reassessment. We have narrowed the gap between the health element and the standard allowance—a perverse incentive of the last Government’s making—and we are investing in genuinely personalised employment support. We have made a good start, but last week’s interim report is a call to action. That is why this Government are putting work and opportunity at the heart of everything we do, and we will go even further as Alan Milburn comes forward with his final report and recommendations.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I thank my hon. Friend not just for her question but for the work that the Select Committee has done on its inquiry. Indeed, I know that Alan Milburn was before her Committee recently, speaking to the work that he is doing. She is absolutely right to call for a focus on disabled people too. Our Connect to Work agenda provides significant support. There is, of course, always more that we can do, but on this—as with those not in employment, education or training aged 16 to 24—we are determined to act, we have a programme to do so, and we take this extremely seriously.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend asks an important question and underpins it with an extremely important statement: this is not the fault of young people. They are not lazy. They have been let down for years by a system that does not serve their needs. The Government are putting in place £2.5 billion for the youth guarantee. We continue to work with employers and employment support providers to talk about how we can tailor support to the specific needs of young people to get the number of young people not in education, employment or training down.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  The Liberal Democrat spokesperson will have heard the Prime Minister’s recent intent to work more closely with European colleagues, because of the economic benefits that working in partnership can yield. Further, the hon. Gentleman is right to recognise that this is a problem many years in the making. I welcome the broad support from Liberal Democrat colleagues for the interim review and I hope that will be the same when the final review comes forward with recommendations. On plans to bring forward jobs for young people, I point the hon. Gentleman to recently announced interventions by the Secretary of State to provide £3,000 to small and medium-sized enterprises that hire apprentices and £2,000 to any employer who hires a young person who has been on universal credit for more than six months. This will make a significant difference and it is the right thing to do.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  The current deal that this Government have with young people is that we will give them opportunities after the Conservative party did not. We will make sure they can find education opportunities, employment opportunities or training opportunities. We will not allow a lost generation to continue based on the failings of the Conservative party.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I agree, but my hon. Friend will appreciate that the Department for Education lead on family hubs.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  Youth hubs are an incredible way for specialists to reach out and work with young people through a range of different interventions. They provide a single space from which we can drill down and target the needs of individual young people, in individual communities, such as those in my hon. Friend’s constituency. I know that my right hon. Friend the Minister for Employment enjoyed her visit, because she told me so.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I do accept that, and the hon. Member will be aware of our work with Charlie Mayfield. He may also be aware that we have recently appointed Marc Bolland, a former chief executive of Marks & Spencer, as the lead non-executive director in the Department. We are incredibly interested in how we can work in partnership with retail to deliver more job opportunities for young people.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  If the hon. Gentleman wishes to have a debate on why young people not in education, employment or training are struggling as they are, he would do well to look at his party’s legacy in government between 2010 and 2015, because we are seeing the impact of things like cuts to Sure Start and opportunities for young people across the piece. It is a far more complex picture than that which he seeks to articulate, and his party’s fingerprints are all over it.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  The causes of those 1 million young people being NEET are deeper than the advent of jobs being lost to AI. None the less, the hon. Member makes an important point, and that is why the Government are undertaking a review of the impact of AI on the labour market.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree. That is significant Government investment that presents a significant opportunity to do just as my hon. Friend suggests.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I spend a great deal of time talking to young people about what they need to support them into work. Clearly, at the moment, we are waiting for the recommendations of the Milburn review, but she will have seen the intent on co-production from the Timms review. I do not know what will be recommended in the Milburn review as yet but, if co-production is in there, I am sure that it is something the Secretary of State will look at.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  Thank you, Mr Speaker. Of course, there was no explanation or apology from the hon. Lady for the fact that her party left almost 1 million young people not in education, employment or training. That was a predictable omission, but an unacceptable one none the less, because discussing the rise in NEETs in recent years without discussing the actions of the past Conservative Government is rather like staging “Hamlet” without the Prince of Denmark. On the Secretary of State’s comments, what he has said has been the same ever since he was appointed. He has said that we have to change the question and the system from “What benefits are you entitled to?” to “How do we help you change your life?” That is what matters and it is exactly what this Government are doing: fixing the broken welfare system that we inherited from the Conservative party, rebalancing universal credit, implementing right to try, tackling the Conservatives’ backlog on access to work, and, of course, providing our £2.5 billion investment in the youth guarantee. That is the welfare reform that this Government are delivering, with opportunity and work, especially for young people, at its heart, and the guarantee of a safety net for those who need it.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I will raise that with the Department of Health and Social Care and come back to my hon. Friend.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend, and I know that the Secretary of State is interested in what we can do to increase the support available to self-employed people of all ages.

• 2 Jun 2026 · Milburn Review: Interim Report · Hansard source

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  I hope my hon. Friend has recognised a sincere conviction in the narrative around the publication of the report in recent days that this must be a key priority right across Government, working with both public and private sector partners to ensure that it is treated as a whole-system problem, so that we can get to the bottom of it and resolve it, to give opportunities to young people.