Office for National Statistics Labour Market Data

Lord Purvis of Tweed Excerpts

Thursday 23rd April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

It is important to understand what we are doing through our youth guarantee trailblazers in England to tackle inactivity and to solve the problem of the number of NEETs, which across the House we want to see solved. Through eight youth guarantee trailblazers in England there has been an expansion of youth hubs to more than 360 areas. The youth guarantee gateway being rolled out in jobcentres provides 16 to 24 year-olds on universal credit with a dedicated session and follow-up support to help move more people into work, training or education. That means that there are 300,000 more opportunities to gain workplace experience and training, including up to 150,000 work experience placements and 145,000 employer-designed training opportunities, such as the sector-based work academy programmes. It is important to give young people that start on the ladder of gaining work experience and an understanding of what the world of work is like. That is the way that we will tackle the problem of NEETs.

[Lord Purvis of Tweed (LD)]

My Lords, does the Minister recognise that one of the great benefits to British businesses and to young people for their employment opportunities was that they had great flexibility in working with our main trading partners in the European Union? Does the Minister see the Government’s reset Bill that we are likely to see in a new Session as a good opportunity to allow youth mobility with our key trading partners? Does he regret slightly that the Government may have said that that was a red line? Might they be a little more flexible for the benefits of our young people and our businesses?

[Lord Katz (Lab)]

The noble Lord tempts me to cross a red line which is a little above my pay grade in talking about our trading arrangements and any future trading agreements with the European Union. However, it is clear already from what we have done with the Erasmus schemes that we take this seriously. The European Union is our closest trading partner and one of our most important trading partners. It is absolutely right that we promote good links between all participants in the UK economy and those in Europe.