Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that bodies responsible for local skills improvement plans have access to local data on youth unemployment at a regional level; and with what frequency that data will be available.

When developing Local Skills Improvement Plans, designated employer representative bodies will be expected to draw on a variety of local labour market data and intelligence, including that on youth unemployment and young people not in education, employment or training. In addition to the information published by the Office for National Statistics on a quarterly basis, employer representative bodies will be expected to engage with local Jobcentre Plus representatives to better understand the specific and emerging circumstances for their local area. Our expectations of designated employer representative bodies, in terms of developing a robust Local Skills Improvement Plan, will be set out in statutory guidance.