I thank Luke Fletcher for bringing this debate. I think it's really useful to remind us that the EMA hasn't been uprated since 2004; it clearly buys a lot less than it used to that long ago. It is a vital—. Even the reduced amount that it currently buys, is still a really, really vital way of enabling young people to stay in education who otherwise might be pushed into going into a job that leads nowhere. It's absolutely vital that we encourage people to stay on in education post 16, so that we have the workforce we need to do all the new tasks that society requires, particularly with the net-zero plan. We need to train up huge numbers of people in clean, green jobs, as well as enabling people to get those entry-level qualifications, whether it's in social and healthcare, or in other sectors that they may want to spend their life in.

I think it's worrying that a lot of learners are unaware of the EMA, because what are schools, colleges and FE institutions doing if they're not promoting it? I think it'd be good to hear from the Minister about that and what we can do about it. Because it's a similar story with the healthy eating voucher, as some people are not getting that, or large numbers of people are not getting that, and we certainly need to maximise all the benefits that people should be able to get in these very, very difficult times.