Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many new cars were registered in (a) London, (b) the West Midlands Combined Authority, (c) the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and (d) the Liverpool City Region in each of the last five years.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The number of cars registered for the first time in the last five years in London were; 107,292 in 2020, 110,607 in 2021, 117,353 in 2022, 138,631 in 2023 and 137,198 in 2024.
We do not readily hold the respective figure for the West Midlands Combined Authority, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, and the Liverpool City Region.
It is important to note, vehicles are allocated to geographic location according to the postcode of the registered keeper. The address does not necessarily reflect where the vehicle is located. This is especially true for large fleets kept by companies involved with vehicle management, leasing or rentals.
Asked by: Warinder Juss (Labour - Wolverhampton West)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure that funding provided through the National Portfolio is distributed equally between (a) charities and (b) for-profit companies in (i) Wolverhampton, (ii) the West Midlands and (iii) England.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Arts Council England (ACE) makes decisions about which organisations and projects to fund in the National Portfolio independently of government and Ministers, which means there is no political involvement in arts funding decisions.
However, ACE ensures fair distribution of the National Portfolio, by using a place-based approach. It analyses data on regional cultural engagement, local needs, and economic conditions to address historic funding imbalances. Initiatives like Priority Places support underrepresented areas. The assessment process considers geographic diversity alongside artistic quality and public benefit. Funding also includes support for charities and non-profit organisations that deliver cultural, educational, and community outcomes. Regular monitoring and reporting ensure accountability, transparency, and that investment benefits audiences and artists nationwide, not just in major urban or historically well-funded regions. The current Portfolio delivers activity in every corner of England, with over £1 million going to Wolverhampton this year, and £88m going to the West Midlands more broadly each year.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he has made in improving water quality in South Shropshire constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Cleaning up our rivers is a top priority. The Environment Agency’s (EA) Water Industry Regulation Transformation Programme is delivering more inspections and pushing water companies to perform better, and water companies are investing over £11 billion between 2025-2030, to improve nearly 3,000 storm overflows across England and Wales.
In the West Midlands in 2024/25, water companies undertook over 160 actions aimed at improving sewage treatment works (STWs) and storm overflow discharges to improve water quality, and over 100 actions aimed to prevent deterioration of water quality.
In this constituency, 14 improvement schemes were delivered at STWs between 2020–2025, with further improvements at 11 STWs and 57 at storm overflows.
During 2024/25 over 800 compliance inspections were conducted at Severn Trent Water sites, aiming to rise to 1700+ in 2025/26. The EA will attend more minor pollution incidents and continue to attend all serious pollution incidents, not hesitating to take appropriate enforcement action.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of his Department's procurement contracts were awarded to companies in the West Midlands in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Five contracts were awarded by the Department to suppliers which had registered addresses and postcodes in the West Midlands area of England in 2024/25. This is 1.5% of the total number of contracts awarded by the Department in that financial year.
Larger suppliers to the Department may have supply chain companies and business locations and workforce in the West Midlands area.
Asked by: Will Forster (Liberal Democrat - Woking)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions her Department has had with the Treasury on the cost of a rollout of smart ticketing across newly nationalised routes.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
We are overhauling the complex fares and ticketing system to make it easier for passengers to trust that they are buying the right ticket and getting the best fare. The rollout of smart ticketing solutions will play an important role in achieving this and improving the passenger experience.
We have committed to expanding Pay As You Go (PAYG) with contactless ticketing to further stations in the Southeast, with an additional 49 stations to be rolled out this year. Additionally, we have announced plans to launch PAYG in both Manchester and the West Midlands, expanding PAYG to more than 90 additional rail stations in 2026. Furthermore, digital pay as you go trials are part of plans to modernise our transport system. The first trial launched at the beginning of September in the East Midlands, with three remaining trials launching in Yorkshire from the end of September.
We are working closely with Train Operating Companies to deliver these projects, with public ownership and the move to Great British Rail (GBR) ensuring we are delivering for both passengers and taxpayers across the network.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate she has made of the number of community service hours offenders have completed in the West Midlands in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
Between July 2021 and December 2024, a total of 1,272,250 hours of unpaid work were worked in the West Midlands.
Year | Unpaid work hours worked |
July to December 2021 | 143,360 |
January to December 2022 | 352,660 |
January to December 2023 | 371,915 |
January to December 2024 | 404,315 |
Data from April 2022 to December 2024 sourced from the latest published statistics on unpaid work. A link can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/biannual-unpaid-work-management-information.
Data from July 2021 to March 2022 sourced from nDelius on 22/07/2025. While these data have been assured as much as practical, as with any large administrative dataset, the data should not be assumed to be accurate to the last value presented.
Data from the biannual Unpaid Work publication are rounded to the nearest five hours worked for data suppression purposes. To be consistent with the publication, the hours worked between July 2021 and March 2022 have also been rounded to the nearest five.
The next publication is due in Autumn 2025.
Data prior to July 2021 is unable to be reported on, due to difficulty in aligning regions pre and post-unification. The unification of Community Rehabilitation Companies and the National Probation Service in England and Wales took place on 26 June 2021, marking a significant restructuring of the probation system.
Asked by: Sonia Kumar (Labour - Dudley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to increase economic growth in Dudley constituency.
Answered by Gareth Thomas
The recently announced Industrial Strategy and Trade Strategy, forming part of our wider Growth Mission, aim to support businesses across the country by creating the conditions for companies to invest, employ and grow.
Dudley, with its rich manufacturing heritage, will benefit from a range of new interventions, including measures to reduce energy costs and, assistance to develop and attract the right skills.
As part of the West Midlands Combined Authority, Dudley has and will continue to benefit from enhanced support targeting the region including devolved funding for local leaders, to continue delivering the right support.
We will also be publishing our Small Business Strategy soon which will set out further measures to increase economic growth in Dudley and across the country.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps is he taking to support start-up companies in (a) the West Midlands and (b) Aldridge-Brownhills constituency.
Answered by Gareth Thomas
Last year, the Business Secretary announced a new Business Growth Service, which will make it easier for businesses including start-up companies across the West Midlands and the UK to get support and advice to grow, export and thrive.
The West Midlands Growth Hub is where small and medium-sized businesses across Aldridge-Brownhill and the West Midlands can obtain specialist advice on scaling up, accessing new markets, and receiving financial support through the British Business Bank.
Businesses can also access other Government programmes such as the Business Support Service, Help to Grow: Management, the UK Export Academy, International Trade Advisors and the Export Support Service.
Asked by: Wendy Morton (Conservative - Aldridge-Brownhills)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits for businesses in Aldridge-Brownhills constituency of the £10m grant issued to the West Midlands Innovation Accelerator this year.
Answered by Feryal Clark
We were delighted to extend the Innovation Accelerator pilot into 2025/26, investing an extra £30 million in growing high-potential clusters in the West Midlands, Glasgow City Region and Greater Manchester.
The West Midlands Innovation Accelerators is supporting a range of projects focused on business innovation. For example, Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator is helping companies navigate “pinch-points” in the medical translation process, and Clean Futures is supporting SMEs to develop, demonstrate and grow clean-tech solutions in partnership with the wider ecosystem.
Innovate UK will continue to work collaboratively with each regional partnership to maximise the impact on their regions.
Asked by: Sarah Edwards (Labour - Tamworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has made an assessment of the impact on business of freight crime in (a) England and (b) the West Midlands; and if she will undertake an assessment of trends in the level of freight crime in (i) England and (ii) the West Midlands.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This Government understands the significant and damaging impact freight crime has on businesses and drivers and we are carefully monitoring the increases in its frequency. The experience of cargo theft, where criminals are ripping the sides of lorries and taking the goods inside, is a highly alarming one for dedicated HGV drivers to go through, and the Government is committed to tackling this crime, and protecting those drivers.
We will continue to work with law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders towards those ends, and I recently met with Rachel Taylor MP, and Lilian Greenwood, Minister for the Future of Roads at the Department for Transport (DfT), specifically to discuss freight crime. The DfT also hosts the Freight Council, which regularly discusses crime against freight companies, and which is attended by Home Office officials to engage with the sector on this issue.
We also recognise the strong links between freight crime and serious, organised crime, which is a major threat to our country’s national security and prosperity and is estimated to cost the UK at least £47 billion annually. This Government is committed to tackling serious and organised crime in all its forms, and we are continuing to work closely with Opal, the police’s national intelligence unit focused on serious organised acquisitive crime, which has multiple thematic desks, including a vehicle crime intelligence desk which covers freight crime.
As well as wider offence data, the Home Office collects and publishes data on specific crimes affecting commercial business premises in England and Wales, including premises in the Transport, Accommodation and Food sector, as part of the Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS). Neither data source currently provides the level of detail necessary to separately identify freight crimes, or the number of offences taking place in different regions.