Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many long-term unemployed 18–21-year-olds have been enrolled on the new national Jobs Guarantee scheme in Birmingham.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

Phase One of the Jobs Guarantee commenced in May and will be followed by national rollout from November 2026. The information requested is planned for future publication and will be made available in due course.

Birmingham and Solihull is one of six Phase One areas where support is being offered first. In Birmingham and Solihull, DWP has partnered with Catch-22 to deliver the Jobs Guarantee and referrals started in May. Long-term unemployed young people who are enrolled on the scheme will be provided six months of paid employment alongside wraparound support and training.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of parents eligible for the Free Childcare for Working Parents scheme have accessed the scheme in Sutton Coldfield constituency.

Answered by Paul Waugh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The latest January 2026 statistics on funded early education and childcare were published on 2 July and can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2026.

These statistics show an estimated 85% of eligible children aged 9 months to 4 years were registered for the working parent entitlement. However, as stated on the methodology page, it is not possible to calculate sub-national estimates for this measure due to data/sample size limitations.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions she has had with the National Highways agency on improving lorry parking facilities in the Midlands.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The department engages regularly with National Highways on improving lorry parking provision and driver welfare facilities across England, including in the Midlands.

Through the HGV Parking and Driver Welfare Match Funding Grant Scheme and National Highways' Lorry Parking Facilities Improvements Scheme, 62 sites across the Midlands since 2022, have received funding to enhance parking capacity, strengthen security measures, and improve facilities for HGV drivers.

The National Highways Scheme remains open to eligible lorry parking operators to improve driver welfare facilities, site security and lorry parking capacity.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to release Family Court Statistics with a regional breakdown.

Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice already publishes Family Court Statistics with regional breakdowns. The Family Court Statistics Quarterly releases include CSV datasets containing regional-level information for a range of family justice measures across England and Wales, including volumes, open caseload and timeliness metrics. They are available here: Family Court Statistics Quarterly - GOV.UK.

The Department will continue to keep its statistical releases under review to ensure it meets user needs.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will estimate the number of young people that will benefit from the Youth Guarantee Gateway scheme in Royal Sutton Coldfield over the next 5 years.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

With over one million young people not in education, employment and training, this Government will not leave an entire generation of young people behind. The Government is investing an additional £2.5 billion over the next three years into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy.

This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn, including through expanded network of Youth Hubs, earlier intensive support in Job Centres through a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, additional work experience and training opportunities, a £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant and £2,000 apprenticeship hiring payment for employers, and a fully funded six month job for long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds.

We also recognise the crisis of participation that Alan Milburn has so clearly laid out in his interim report. We will use this interim report to continue to build our reforms and look forward to final recommendations in the Autumn.

In total, over the next three years almost one million young people on Universal Credit and looking for work in Great Britain will benefit from the Youth Guarantee Gateway receiving a dedicated work support session, followed by four additional weeks of intensive support.

The Department does not forecast demand at a constituency level. All young people in Royal Sutton Coldfield who are eligible will benefit from the Youth Guarantee Gateway.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support wildlife conservation sites in the West Midlands.

Answered by Jenny Riddell-Carpenter - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra published its updated protected sites Environment Act target delivery plan on the 16 July here to support the improvement of protected sites across the country, including the West Midlands.

Natural England (NE) monitors protected sites to ensure these are managed appropriately and advises land managers on suitable funding schemes to improve site condition.

NE maintains mapping systems and datasets such SSSI Impact Risk Zones to help local authorities and developers avoid harm to sites and target conservation efforts.

Biodiversity Net Gain supports wildlife sites by ensuring that new developments leave biodiversity in a better state than before.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to reduce congestion on key commuter routes in the West Midlands.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government is supporting improvements to public transport connectivity across the West Midlands through the £2.4 billion Transport for City Regions settlement allocated to the West Midlands Combined Authority through to 2031/32.

This devolved funding gives the Combined Authority, and the Mayor, the flexibility to determine local transport investment priorities, including those that improve connectivity and help tackle congestion on key commuter routes across the region.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with Birmingham City Council regarding local residential and nursing care capacity.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan for the needs of their population, which is why, under the Care Act 2014, they are tasked with the duty to shape their care markets to meet the diverse needs of all local people. This includes using local population and market data to inform commissioning decisions and drawing on providers’ insights into local market sustainability and workforce pressures to ensure that people have a choice of appropriate and high quality care services in their local area.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the full time equivalent police officer workforce was on the most recent date for which data is available in West Midlands Police; and if she will forecast the expected numbers for the next 5 years.

Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps her Department is taking to improve the reliability and punctuality of rail services in (a) Royal Sutton Coldfield (b) the West Midlands.

Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Government is working closely with the rail industry to improve the reliability and punctuality of services across all regions. Denise Wetton has recently been appointed as Integrated Managing Director for the West Midlands, leading the integration of track and train across the region as part of the transition to Great British Railways. This single accountability across track and train will deliver a sharper focus on the measures that will most effectively reduce delays and cancellations.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Prime Minister will make it his policy to distribute to the book entitled Everybody Loves our Dollars by Oliver Bullough to her Cabinet.

Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

No.

Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to eliminate rough sleeping in the Birmingham City Council area.

Answered by Florence Eshalomi - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)

On his first day in office the Prime Minister launched an urgent national drive to end rough sleeping at the earliest opportunity. We are providing £442 million new funding to local areas through a new Rough Sleeping Programme to ensure that everyone who needs it is offered a route off the streets before Christmas this year, while providing longer-term accommodation and support for people with the most complex and long-term experiences of rough sleeping.

Funding has been targeted towards areas with the greatest rough sleeping pressures, while giving Mayoral Strategic Authorities and local authorities flexibility to shape services around local needs and priorities. A full breakdown of allocations of funding, including for West Midlands Combined Authority, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rough-sleeping-programme. MHCLG will continue to work closely with the Mayoral Strategic Authority and Birmingham City Council to develop plans for accommodation and support provision through the Programme.

These measures build on the Government's wider action to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping, and take total investment in homelessness and rough sleeping services over the next three years to more than £4 billion. Further details of the Government's most recent measures are set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of 1 September 2026 (HCWS300).

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking ahead of the winter to help relieve pressures on NHS services within the NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board area.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

Preparations for winter are led locally by integrated care boards (ICBs) working with acute trusts, primary care, community services, mental health providers, local authorities and social care partners. On 17 July, NHS England wrote out to the system with the annual winter planning 2026/27 letter, which sets out expectations and assurance mechanisms for winter, including key actions for all local areas to take.

Local areas, including trust and ICB leadership, are developing robust plans to manage demand and capacity and respond to periods of increased pressure. They are also being asked to provide a named executive winter lead and will stress test plans at the September regional stress test exercise.

This builds on progress made last winter, when more patients were treated within four hours, fewer patients waited over 12 hours in accident and emergency departments and Category 2 ambulance response times improved, despite increased demand.