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, what steps he is taking to improve the identification of mental health needs among young people entering the criminal justice system for the first time in the West Midlands.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Within West Midlands police custody and court settings, Liaison and Diversion Teams, with consent, will assess a young person to identify their needs and vulnerabilities, and will provide information to the police and court to help inform criminal justice decision making. This assessment includes their mental health needs, sharing information with appropriate agencies and liaising with them to ensure the correct support is put in place as they pass through the system.
Should a young person enter prison, the Healthcare Team completes a reception health screen on arrival, before the child or young person’s (CYP) first night and ideally within two hours, using the Comprehensive Health Assessment Tool (CHAT) which is a nationally recognised and reliable tool for use with CYP. The assessment identifies life threatening and immediate health needs, identifies prescribed medication and records visible injuries. Where needs are identified actions are taken and information shared. All CYP will then receive a full secure CHAT assessment, which includes assessment of physical health and mental health within three days. There are clear mental health pathways to manage referrals for the needs identified.
On a monthly basis, commissioners monitor the prison healthcare services in relation to completion of CHATs including percentage of CYP receiving a CHAT reception health screening within two hours of admission and percentage of CYP with a CHAT mental health assessment completed within three days.
The above is all delivered in accordance with national service specifications which set out the service to be delivered and associated timescales.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 encourage foreign direct investment in the West Midlands.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department actively promotes FDI into the West Midlands through the Office for Investment (OfI), which works closely with the West Midlands Combined Authority and regional stakeholders to identify, shape, and market regional opportunities internationally. This reflects the importance of the West Midlands to delivering the UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy and Infrastructure Strategy. We held the Regional Investment Summit jointly with WMCA in Birmingham last year which saw £635m of private investment announced for West Midlands and recently supported Mayor Richard Parker’s trade mission to India to engage existing and prospective investors.
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, what steps his Department is taking to improve access to community dental services for care home residents in the West Midlands.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We recognise that certain groups of patients may be particularly vulnerable to oral health problems and may find it difficult to access dental care. Specialised dental services are in place to provide dental treatment in several settings, including care homes, and are commissioned by integrated care boards (ICBs), and for the Sutton Coldfield constituency this is the Birmingham and Solihull ICB.
Domiciliary dental services are commissioned locally to support those who are unable to access high street dental practices due to medical, physical, or psychological conditions. This is largely through community dental services (CDS), which carry the required expertise and equipment to treat individuals who are housebound or living in care settings. The frequency of dental checks for those living in care homes will be determined by dentists on an individual basis according to need, and care homes can contact their local CDS directly to request a domiciliary visit. If the provider is unknown, the ICB or the relevant NHS England regional team can advise.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on oral health in care homes sets out a number of recommendations for care homes to help maintain and improve oral health and ensure timely access to dental treatment for their residents. The Government expects care homes to be following NICE guidance and recommendations in this area.
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, what assessment his Department has made of ambulance response times in the West Midlands Ambulance Service.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Ambulance response times data is collected and published monthly, including at a trust level, and is available at the following link:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/ambulance-quality-indicators/
The most recent National Health Service performance figures for the West Midlands Ambulance service shows that on average in February 2026, Category 2 incidents were responded to in 20 minutes and 42 seconds.
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, what steps his Department is taking to work with NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB to help reduce the number of patients that are waiting an extended period for podiatry services.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We have set a clear target for systems to work to reduce long waits in NHS England’s Medium Term Planning Framework. By 2028/29 at least 80% of community health service activity, including podiatry, should take place within 18 weeks. In addition, in 2025 we published Standardising Community Health Services, which provides an overview of the core community health services, with further detail published in February 2026.
The NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) is responsible for commissioning podiatry services across Birmingham and Solihull. Services are provided by the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and the Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
The Birmingham and Solihull ICB is working closely with both providers to address these challenges and reduce waiting times through a coordinated programme of improvements. Key actions across the system include:
- improving access and pathways, by reviewing and refining referral pathways to ensure patients are directed to the most appropriate service first time, reducing unnecessary demand and delays;
- service redesign, by developing more sustainable models of care that better reflect current demand and levels of clinical complexity, including opportunities to deliver care in alternative settings;
- workforce development and productivity, by expanding workforce capacity through apprenticeships and upskilling, optimising skill mix, and improving productivity through better use of support roles and streamlined clinic processes; and
- operational improvements, by reducing non-attendance rates, improving clinic utilisation, and strengthening performance monitoring to support timely intervention where pressures emerge.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps she is taking to support tech start-up companies to scale up in the Midlands.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This Government is committed to removing barriers to growth for scaleups across the UK - ensuring the UK is one of the best places for tech to start, scale and stay.
We are strengthening regional tech ecosystems through the Regional Tech Booster, a programme supporting startups and accelerating tech clusters beyond London. Furthermore, £50 million funding has been earmarked to the West Midlands through the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund – our £500 million programme to grow regional innovation strengths. Regions across the UK, including the other Midlands regions, were able to bid for up to £20 million through the fund’s competition. UKRI are now independently assessing the quality of these bids.
More broadly, we are supporting the sector through venture capital schemes, R&D tax reliefs, targeted visa routes, the AI Opportunities Action Plan and streamlining regulation to support innovation. Through the Budget, we are investing in skills, compute, and designated AI Growth Zones; on R&D, we are committing £38.6bn to UKRI over five years; and powering entrepreneurship with the Entrepreneurship Prospectus, Enterprise Fellowships, and Innovate UK’s £130m Growth Catalyst. We are unlocking finance via pension and capital‑markets reforms, while the British Business Bank increases annual investment to £2.5bn and commits £5bn to growth‑stage funds.
Together, these measures set out a comprehensive, long‑term plan backed by record funding, to support growth across the whole UK.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to support schools to recruit qualified modern languages teachers in the West Midlands.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
High quality teaching is the in-school factor that has the biggest positive impact on a child’s outcomes. This is why the government’s Plan for Change is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools, and our colleges, over the course of this Parliament.
The department is offering £20,000 tax-free bursaries for modern foreign language (MFL) trainees, including international as well as domestic trainees. In addition, we are continuing to offer a prestigious scholarship worth £22,000 tax-free for French, German and Spanish trainees.
Our future school teacher pipeline is growing. Although this government inherited a system with critical shortages of MFL teachers, with the department achieving only 32% of its postgraduate initial teacher training target in 2023/24, this year we have achieved 94% of the target with 1,378 new trainees beginning their postgraduate training in MFL.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to increase the number of apprenticeships in the West Midlands.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government is transforming the apprenticeships levy into a new growth and skills levy, which will deliver greater flexibility to employers and more opportunities for young people and support the industrial strategy across the country, including in the West Midlands.
In August 2025, we introduced new foundation apprenticeships to give young people a route into careers in critical sectors, enabling them to earn a wage while developing vital skills. They are underpinned by additional funding for employers of up to £2,000 to contribute to the extra costs of supporting someone at the beginning of their career.
We are investing an additional £725 million to deliver the next phase of the growth and skills levy and meet our ambition to support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships. We will expand foundation apprenticeships into sectors that traditionally recruit young people, launch a pilot with Mayoral Strategic Authorities to better connect young people to local apprenticeship opportunities, and fully fund SME apprenticeships for eligible 16–24-year-olds from the next academic year.
From April 2026, employers will also be able to access short, flexible training courses to help respond quickly to evolving skills needs. The first wave of these courses will be called apprenticeship units and they will be available in critical skills areas such as artificial intelligence, digital and engineering.
The government also facilitates and funds the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) which comprises 2,500 employers and apprentices who volunteer to promote the benefits of apprenticeships. It operates across all parts of England, including the West Midlands, through nine regional networks which provide buddying and mentoring support to small businesses to help them recruit and retain apprentices.
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, what steps he is taking to help ensure eligible men take up prostate cancer screening in Sutton Coldfield constituency.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There is currently no national prostate cancer screening programme. The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) is an independent scientific advisory committee which advises ministers and the National Health Service in all four countries on all aspects of population and targeted screening and supports implementation. They recently closed a consultation on their draft recommendation to:
The evidence that supports this draft recommendation can be found on the UK NSC prostate cancer recommendation page, at the following link:
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure energy security in Sutton Coldfield constituency.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is strengthening energy security by reducing dependency on volatile global fossil fuel markets and delivering a diverse, secure and clean energy system based on renewables and nuclear, backed up by a strategic reserve of gas supply to be used only when essential, which will benefit the country and the Hon. Member’s constituency.
For further detail I refer the Rt hon. Member to the answer I gave on 2 March to Question UIN 113858.