Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in Sutton Coldfield constituency have access to mental health support teams.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The government will provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school by expanding mental health support teams (MHSTs) by the end of 2029/30, so every child and young person has access to early support to address problems before they escalate. As well as providing targeted, low intensity support directly to young people and their parents or carers, MHSTs work in schools and colleges to reduce barriers to accessing mental health services and support a holistic approach to mental health and emotional wellbeing.
In April 2025, around five million pupils and learners were covered by an MHST. We estimate an additional 900,000 pupils in schools and learners in further education in England will be covered by April 2026, which is around six million in total, or 60% of all pupils and learners.
In Sutton Coldfield, all but one of the seven secondary schools were reported to be receiving support from an MHST in April 2025, with cover representing 39% of all pupils and learners in schools and colleges in the constituency. No primary schools are yet covered by an MHST. Further expansion is underway in the Birmingham and Solihull integrated care system this financial year.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the police on tackling illegal motorbike driving in public spaces in the West Midlands.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Tackling anti-social behaviour is a top priority for this Government and a key part of our Safer Streets Mission.
Our Crime and Policing Bill will give the police greater powers to clamp down on all vehicles, including motorbikes, involved in anti-social behaviour with officers no longer required to issue a warning before seizing these vehicles.
On 28 May, the Government launched a six-week consultation on proposals to allow the police to more quickly dispose of seized vehicles such as motorbikes, which have been used anti-socially.
Combined, these proposals will help tackle the scourge of vehicles ridden anti-socially in West Midlands by sending a clear message to would be offenders and local communities that this behaviour will not be tolerated.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times stop and search powers have been used under Serious Violence Reduction Orders in the West Midlands.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVROs) were piloted for two years throughout Merseyside, Sussex, Thames Valley and West Midlands police force areas. The pilot took place between 19 April 2023 and 18 April 2025.
The pilot is being independently evaluated, and the evaluation is considering the use of stop and search powers under SVROs across the four pilot forces
The final independent evaluation of the pilot, due this summer, will look to understand the use of the SVRO stop and search power and the effectiveness of SVROs in reducing reoffending and knife carrying.
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 - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
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: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much funding from tree planting schemes has been granted to the West Midlands in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is working towards the statutory target to reach 16.5% tree canopy and woodland cover in England by 2050. Defra and the Forestry Commission are funding a significant package of grants and supporting activity across England to increase tree coverage. Tree-planting is demand-led from applicants from across England and we do not collate this information by area.
As part of the tree planting programme Defra provides funding to the National Forest Company and the Community Forests.
A breakdown covering the last five years for the amount paid by Defra to the Forest of Mercia (the Community Forest falling within the West Midlands) and the funding provided by Defra to the National Forest Company that has been directed to tree planting schemes in Staffordshire (the only West Midlands county falling within the National Forest) can be found below.
Year | Forest of Mercia (£) | National Forest Company – Staffordshire (£) |
2020/21 | 163,197 | 118,418 |
2021/22 | 305,010 | 720,170 |
2022/23 | 543,069 | 319,377 |
2023/24 | 607,390 | 548,701 |
2024/25 | 894,722 | 580,943 |
Total | 2,513,388 | 2,287,608 |
NB. Total may not match sum of individual years due to rounding to nearest whole number.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Police and Crime Commissioner for the West Midlands on tackling knife crime.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
Halving knife crime over the next decade is a key part of the Government’s Safer Streets Mission and I have regular engagement with policing colleagues, including Police and Crime Commissioners, on how we can collectively achieve this ambition.
During Knife Crime Awareness Week in May this year, I visited Coventry to observe the proactive measures being implemented by West Midlands Police to tackle knife crime.
West Midlands Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner for West Midlands have also been significant contributors to the Knife-Enabled Robbery (KER) Taskforce, which I established in October 2024 to take urgent action against this rising crime type. As a member of the Taskforce they have helped build the evidence base of ‘what works’ to tackle KER and shared innovative practice with other partners.
The West Midlands has recently seen a decline in knife crime, including a sizeable reduction in KER (14% reduction in the YE December 2024 compared with the previous year), with initiatives such as weapon surrender bins, dedicated investigative resource, and preventative work contributing to this progress.
These developments underscore the importance of continued collaboration and evidence-based strategies in our mission to make communities safer.
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 improve the capacity of sexual health services in Sutton Coldfield constituency.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Local authorities in England, including Birmingham, which is the upper tier local authority for Sutton Coldfield, are responsible for commissioning comprehensive, open access to most sexual health services (SHSs) funded through the Public Health Grant. In 2025/26, we are increasing funding through the Public Health Grant to £3.858 billion, providing local authorities with an average 5.4% cash increase and a 3% real terms increase, the biggest real-terms increase after nearly a decade of reduced spending. Individual local authorities are well placed to make funding and commissioning decisions about the SHSs that best meet the needs of their local populations.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) supports local areas to improve SHS delivery through data monitoring and reporting.
The Government is committed to ending new HIV transmissions in England by 2030 and is developing a new HIV Action Plan in collaboration with the UKHSA, NHS England, and a broad range of system partners, which we aim to publish this year. The plan will have the key objective of stabilising and supporting system enablers to further support joined up working across the system.
Asked by: Andrew Mitchell (Conservative - Sutton Coldfield)
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 help support economic growth in Sutton Coldfield town centre.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Sutton Coldfield is receiving up to £20 million of funding and support over the next decade through the Plan for Neighbourhoods. This initiative aims to transform the area by unleashing its full potential, investing in improved community services such as education, health, and employment, and tackling local issues like crime. The transformation will be holistic, long-term, and sustainable, delivering meaningful change in the day-to-day lives of local people, led by a Neighbourhood Board made up of local people and independently chaired.
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 reduce waiting times for endometriosis treatment in the West Midlands.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of the end of May 2025, the latest available data, the Gynaecology Service waiting list, which includes those waiting for endometriosis treatment, for the West Midlands stood at 64,594, with 52.1% of patient pathways within 18 weeks.
As set out in the Plan for Change, we have committed to return to the National Health Service constitutional standard that 92% of patients, including those waiting for endometriosis treatment, wait no longer than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by March 2029, including in the West Midlands. We have supported this with additional investment in the Autumn Budget, which has allowed us to exceed our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments, having now delivered 4.6 million additional appointments up to the end of April 2025.
There are a range of efforts underway, nationally and in the West Midlands, to reduce the time patients are waiting for gynaecological care. The Elective Reform Plan, published in January 2025, sets out the productivity and reform efforts we will undertake to return to the 18-week standard, and to ensure patients have the best possible experience while they wait. This includes increasing the relative funding available to support gynaecology procedures, including for certain endometriosis pathways with the largest waiting lists, and reviewing support options from the independent sector.
In November 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence updated its guidelines on the diagnosis and management of endometriosis, which will help women receive more timely care. This includes updated recommendations that for women with symptoms of endometriosis, initial pharmacological treatment should take place in primary care, and that this can take place in parallel with additional investigations and referral to secondary care if needed.
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 reduce accident and emergency waiting times in hospitals in the West Midlands.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises that urgent and emergency care performance has fallen short in recent years and is committed to restoring accident and emergency waiting times to the National Health Service constitutional standard across England, including in the West Midlands.
Our Urgent and emergency care plan 2025/26 sets out a fundamental shift in the approach to urgent and emergency care. It will drive collaboration across the system to deliver improvements for patients this year and is backed by nearly £450 million of capital investment.
Furthermore, our 10-Year Health Plan sets out how we will reduce waiting times in accident and emergency by shifting care into the community through new Neighbourhood Health Services, forming a key part of our mission to reform the NHS.