Government Employment Strategy

A critical part of the Government’s strategy to meet the target to increase the number of people in employment must be to tackle the low rates of employment among people who are disabled or who have long-term sicknesses, as well as focusing on the groups that are rightly dwelt upon in the Select Committee’s report. I know, from our discussions in other debates and Committees, that the Minister is well aware of that. In his opening speech, the Chairman of the Select Committee voiced his concerns about the poor quality of the Government’s response to the report and their inadequacy in addressing many of its important points. It seems that Ministers are in the mood for apologising at the moment—the Chancellor has certainly been in the habit of apologising for other Departments’ mistakes recently. I know that the Minister has great aspirations: perhaps he could take a leaf out of the Chancellor’s book and apologise to the Committee for the Government’s poor response, but that might not be his style. I do not know; we shall see.