There has been the growing Crisis of Youth Unemployment - about 18 per cent.

If we were not facing a Crisis of Youth Unemployment, with all its social consequences, perhaps that would be tolerable in terms of the good husbandry of local authority expenditure.

Faced with the Crisis of Youth Unemployment, which is substantially of their own making, Ministers have rained blows and blame on young people.

There is a direct link between the lack of quality training and education opportunities for 16 to 19-year-olds and Britain's Crisis of Youth Unemployment.

We are facing a Youth Unemployment Crisis in this country the scale of which we have not seen since the 1980s.

The Youth Unemployment Crisis and the future jobs fund policy points to three things: first, a series of broken promises, denials and U-turns by this shoddy Tory-led Government; secondly, the fact that they have no policy for growth or job creation, eggs Benedict and all; and thirdly, the perils of the Government's vision of the big society.

From both sides of the House we have heard mounting alarm about the Youth Unemployment Crisis that is battering every community in the land, not least, as we heard, those in Thurrock, Cardiff Central, Enfield North, East Hampshire and Nuneaton.

Also, the Government do have a choice-they can slavishly carry on as now, or, as I hope, they can take steps to deal with faltering growth in our economy; establish a plan to create jobs in the private sector to deal with the Crisis of Youth Unemployment; and take steps to support the voluntary and charitable sector.

This Government inherited a Youth Unemployment Crisis, and to tackle the problem the Chancellor's Budget announced 100,000 new work experience places and funding for an additional 40,000 apprenticeships, on top of the 75,000 places that we announced last year.

He also touched on the growing Crisis of Youth Unemployment, and rightly challenged his Minister to explain what the Government will do if they will not support his Bill.

Will the Secretary of State look at bringing back the future jobs fund, given the current Crisis of Youth Unemployment?

What the hon. Gentleman's constituents want to know is what the Government are going to do about the Crisis of Youth Unemployment unfolding in constituencies - [ Interruption.

Is the hon. Lady seriously denying that a Crisis in Youth Unemployment is unfolding now?

In the wake of this national Crisis of Youth Unemployment, what have the Government done?

Given the Crisis of Youth Unemployment, we need to make absolutely sure that the opportunities out there are going to young people who need them.

The Bill could also have secured more justice for the young and poor in our society by introducing a tax on bank bonuses for the next two years - the first step in tackling the Youth Unemployment Crisis, the scale of which the excellent report by the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations exposed this morning.

We are in the midst of a Youth Unemployment Crisis, and the Secretary of State for Scotland has been posted missing.

By the Government's own admission there is a Crisis of Youth Unemployment, with more than a million under-25s out of work, with 1.

Given the ongoing Crisis of Youth Unemployment, may we have an urgent debate in the House on that issue?

It cannot possibly deal with the Youth Unemployment Crisis.

Further to the Minister for Work's answer to my question on6 December on the International Labour Organisation's meeting at which the Crisis of Youth Unemployment was discussed, will the Minister tell me what briefing he has received from the UK representatives, given the damage that the eurozone crisis is doing to manufacturing in my constituency and to the possibilities for young people who want to enter industry?

The Government had nothing to say on tackling the Crisis in Youth Unemployment.

There is nothing on tackling the Crisis in Youth Unemployment, nothing on housing when new home completions are now at their lowest level since the 1920s, nothing to stop the undercutting of wages by tackling the exploitation of immigrant labour, nothing to back small businesses struggling to get credit, and nothing on living standards while families see the costs of energy bills and train fares rise out of their reach.

With just two years to go, the Government have no answers and nothing to say on tackling the Crisis in Youth Unemployment; nothing to back small businesses struggling to get credit; nothing on living standards at a time when families' energy and other household bills are rising out of reach; nothing on housing at a time when new home completions are at their lowest level since the 1920s; nothing to stop the undercutting of wages by tackling the exploitation of immigrant labour; and nothing on growth.

The House hears what the Secretary of State has to say about youth unemployment, but there is a Youth Unemployment Crisis among young black men in particular.

We fail our young people if we do not get them a good first step on the career ladder, and we all know about the Crisis of Youth Unemployment that this country still has.

We face a Youth Unemployment Crisis, with more than one in four young people out of work, and the Government's lack of support for the tourism sector is clearly impairing job creation.

I wish to make a plea to the Chancellor: it is time to start taking the Youth Unemployment Crisis seriously, and it is time to invest the Government's Budget in young people because they are our future business leaders, construction workers, engineers, and scientists.

Throughout our evidence, we heard that one of the unusual aspects of This Youth Unemployment Crisis is that it is affecting a wide range of young people, not just the most disadvantaged.

We have a Youth Unemployment Crisis, and we are in danger of writing off another generation of young people, as happened in the 1980s when all those wonderful top rate reductions in tax were being made; and we have the lowest rate of house building since the 1920s.