Milburn Review: Interim Report

Damian Hinds Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Western]

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.

[Damian Hinds (East Hampshire) (Con)]

This is an important piece of work from Alan Milburn, but what principles will underpin the Government’s approach? Does the Minister think that, other things being equal, if we increase the cost of employing people, then that will come at the expense of jobs? Does he think that, with slack in the labour market, if we do things such as reducing probation periods at a time when the cost of employing younger people without experience is going up anyway, that will mean that those young people are less likely to be given the opportunities and the vacancies that exist?

[Andrew Western]

I agree with the right hon. Gentleman that, in the current climate, incentives are required to encourage employers to hire young people, and I have set out the measures that we have taken to do that. However, he is one of a number of Conservative Members today who have raised the Employment Rights Act, which is the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation. This Government are steadfast in continuing to support working people and ensuring that the Act is fully implemented.