Oral Answers to Questions

Theresa Villiers Excerpts
Monday 18th March 2024

(8 months, 1 week ago)

Commons Chamber
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Mel Stride Portrait Mel Stride
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I am pleased that the hon. Lady raises Access to Work, because it is extremely effective. The grant can be there year in, year out and be up to a maximum of £66,000. Along with other approaches, it has very much led to our meeting our employment goal for disabled people in half the time that we set in 2017—over a million more disabled people were in work by 2022.

Theresa Villiers Portrait Theresa Villiers (Chipping Barnet) (Con)
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What are the Government doing to use apprenticeships to help young people engage with the labour market, to tackle levels of economic inactivity and to give them the opportunities they need to get the careers that they want?

Mel Stride Portrait Mel Stride
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My right hon. Friend raises economic inactivity, which is lower in our country than in the United States, France and Italy. It is below the average of the OECD, the G7 and the European Union. Apprenticeships play a very important part in producing those good figures, though there is of course always more to be done, not least through our approach of engaging extremely closely with employers, both at the national level and through our jobcentres.