Baroness Thornton (Lab)

My Lords, I would like to address the issue of why we are taking this Statement so late in the evening, and the remarks of the noble Lord, Lord Addington. My understanding—I know that my noble friend on the Front Bench is too polite to say this—is that this was arranged so that the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, could be here to defend what is presumably the jewel in his crown. If that is not the case, I maybe was misinformed. I am surprised to hear those on the Bench opposite asking questions such as the noble Lord did in his opening remarks, especially since, in 2021, the previous Government made cuts of £135 million after the Evaluation Task Force shared its concern about the impact and value of the NCS. They were a Government who introduced and oversaw huge cuts to local authority youth funding, leading to the closure of huge numbers of youth facilities—in contrast, it has to be said, with the achievements of the previous Labour Government with Sure Start, which transformed the future of a generation of children and was then dumped by the noble Lord’s Government. Given that the noble Lord and his Government oversaw sweeping cuts to this programme, does my noble friend the Minister agree that we do not need to take any lessons from those on the Opposition Benches about supporting the future of young people? Can my noble friend say what the timeline is for publishing and implementing the strategy?