Written questions by Mitchell.

What the average length of time is between receiving an expression of interest and receiving a formal application and the start of a training programme for a new recruit in the (a) Army and (b) Army Reserve.

In the 12 months ending 1 July 2025, the average time taken between application and untrained entry for UK/Irish Regular Other Ranks was 249 days. In regard to the average time taken between application and untrained entry for the Army Reserve, this is information is not held centrally and will take some time to collate. I will write to the hon. Member with a response. Notes/caveats:The figures are for the Regular Army only and therefore exclude Gurkhas, Full Time Reserve Service, Mobilised Reserves, Army Reserve and all other Reserves.Time of Flight is defined as the time passed in days between the date of application and the date of intake to the untrained strength.Average Time of Flight is expressed as the median number of days. That is, it is the middle value in the dataset when Time of Flight is put in ascending order e.g. half of those that entered the Regular Other Ranks did so in 249 and half took longer.Application data is taken from the Defence Recruitment System and matched to intake data from the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system and should reflect time to entry.Army figures differ from Recruiting Group (RG) information reported elsewhere due to differing methodologies. The RG figures are intended to support operational decision-makers monitoring operational and pipeline performance.Applications from non-UK candidates are excluded, with Nationality as declared on JPA. Army figures include applications from Irish personnel but exclude applications from other countries and those applicants without a known nationality.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with the Chief Minister of Saint Helena on the unfreezing of pension benefits for entitled residents.

Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office officials are engaging closely with the new Government of St Helena on the issue of pensions, alongside other issues. I look forward to welcoming the new Chief Minister to the UK-Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council in London in November 2025, and discussing our priorities for the partnership between the United Kingdom and St Helena.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to support the full implementation of the British Indian Ocean Territory Partnership Agreement, signed in October 2024.

Further to the October 2024 Political Agreement, the UK/Mauritius Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia was signed on 22 May. The UK is working closely with the US and Mauritius on the arrangements to implement this treaty.An implementation Bill - 'The Diego Garcia Military Base and British Indian Ocean Territory Bill', has been introduced and is progressing through Parliament in the usual way.

What assessment she has made of the prevalence of speeding in the West Midlands.

The Department for Transport has not conducted a specific assessment of prevalence of speeding in the West Midlands. The Government treats road safety seriously and is committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. The Department for Transport issues best practice guidance on setting local speed limits. This is designed to make sure that speed limits are appropriately and consistently set, whilst allowing for flexibility to deal with local needs and circumstances. The guidance can be viewed at the following link: www.gov.uk/government/publications/setting-local-speed-limits.

What steps her Department is taking to support public awareness campaigns aimed at improving road safety in the West Midlands.

THINK! is the Government’s flagship road safety campaign, which aims to reduce deaths and serious injuries on our roads. It targets those most at risk, particularly male drivers aged 17–24, who are four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured on the road than drivers aged 25 and over. Recent campaigns have addressed drink driving and speeding, with paid media activity delivered nationally, including in the West Midlands. The Department also provides toolkits, creative assets, and guidance to help local authorities deliver tailored road safety messaging. This has included working closely with West Mercia Police to extend the reach of the campaign in the region through campaign messaging on ad vans and distribution of posters and beermats to bars and pubs. All departmental campaigns will continue to target the West Midlands as part of national behaviour change efforts.

What discussions she has had with (a) West Midlands Police and (b) Birmingham City Council on the forthcoming Road Safety Strategy.

The Government treats road safety seriously and is committed to reducing the numbers of those killed and injured on our roads. My Department regularly engages with the police and local authorities. With regards to the West Midlands, my officials have held conversations with Transport for the West Midlands and the West Midlands Road Safety Commissioner. More details on the Road Safety Strategy will be set out in due course.

How much funding has been allocated from the Active Travel England fund to local authorities in the West Midlands.

From 2020/21 to 2025/26, Active Travel England has allocated a total of £101,488,475 to the West Midlands. Funding from 2025/26 for the combined authority has been provided through the Integrated Settlement.

What steps she is taking to reduce educational inequalities for secondary school pupils in the West Midlands.

All children and young people should have every opportunity to succeed, no matter where they are from. However, the government knows educational inequalities exist at every phase of education across the country. This is not acceptable in the West Midlands, or nationally.Through our Plan for Change, we are tackling these inequalities and have set a milestone of a 75% of 5 year-olds reaching a good level of development in the early years foundation stage profile assessment by 2028. The department will invest close to £1.5 billion over the next three years to raise quality, close gaps, and break down barriers to opportunity for every child.We are also rolling out free breakfast clubs in every state-funded primary school, expanding free school meals to all children on Universal Credit from September 2026 and have delivered record increases to the early years pupil premium.This is alongside our work to drive high and rising standards in every school, including new regional improvement in standards and excellence teams, the Curriculum and Assessment Review and our commitment to recruit an additional 6,500 new expert teachers across secondary and special schools and in our colleges.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help tackle harm to pollinators in the West Midlands.

Pollinators are an essential part of our environment and play a crucial role in food production. Following the conclusion of our National Pollinator Strategy in 2024, we will be designing and delivering a refreshed Pollinator Action Plan, that sits underneath our broader Environmental Improvement Plan. This will set out key actions for pollinators across every area in England, including the West Midlands.

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.

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.

What assessment she has made of the number of pupils that miss education due to long term illness at (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools in the West Midlands.

The department collects data on children missing education from local authorities. The latest data, including breakdowns by geography, characteristic and length of time missing education, has been available since 12 December 2024 and can be accessed here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-missing-education/2024-25-autumn-term.The department does not yet publish data on physical health or mental health as a primary reason for children missing education. However, these fields have been added to the aggregate termly local authority data collection for the first time, beginning autumn 2025 and will be included in the next official statistics release.Data on pupil absence is collected via the school census, and the latest publication is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england/2024-25-autumn-term. Reasons for absence are included in the publication, including the illness rate.

What steps he is taking to support people with bladder and bowel control conditions in Sutton Coldfield constituency.

An Adult Bladder and Bowel (Continence) service is delivered via Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (BCHC) offering appointments for all residents in Birmingham, including in Sutton Coldfield, with a clinic facility in North Locality based at Sutton Cottage Hospital. The service offers face-to-face and virtual consultations and supports the community nursing service with patients who meet the housebound criteria with complex needs around continence management, catheter care or bowel management.The service treats adults who are experiencing bladder problems or bowel dysfunction, with all patients receiving a high-quality clinical assessment and personalised care plan in line with best practice, and national driven guidance.There are a range of investigations, including vaginal pelvic floor assessment, bladder ultra-sound scan or rectal examination, that are available through the service that helps to determine the best course of treatment, based on individual patient needs. Treatment may include lifestyle advice or interventions, pelvic floor exercises, bladder re-training, medication, specialist care or signposting to other appropriate services. The service also offers specialist clinics for young adults aged between 18 and 19 years old transitioning from Children's Services working in partnership BCHC’s Children's and Families Division. The service can be accessed by referral via a patient’s general practitioner (GP).Housebound patients, including patients with psychological illness which prevent them from accessing a clinic, or following a treatment programme, will initially need to be referred to a Community Nursing service for assessment and treatment by the patient’s GP.BCHC is currently scoping the use of containment products and ensuring they align with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance recommendations. A consultation and engagement plan, quality impact and equality, human rights assessment will underpin any decisions on the future model.The average patient waiting times for clinic appointments at Sutton Cottage is 10 weeks, but urgent referrals can be seen within two weeks.GPs also can access secondary care specialist advice and e-refer a patient to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust’s (UHB) specialist clinics for adults with incontinence, overactive bladder, stress urinary incontinence, or bladder pain.As part of the system’s work to transform and standardise care, between October 2026 and March 2027, GPs across Birmingham and Solihull will start to have access to digital tools for clinical decision making and case management via online consulting rooms with UHB urology specialists to speed up and improve access in health and care.

What steps her Department is taking to support schools to recruit qualified Maths teachers in the West Midlands.

High quality teaching is the most important in-school factor for improving children’s outcomes, which is why the department is committed to recruiting an additional 6,500 new expert teachers in our maintained schools and colleges, over the course of this Parliament.The department’s measures to encourage talented trainees into mathematics teaching include bursaries worth £29,000 tax-free and scholarships worth £31,000 tax-free. Retaining these teachers is also key and for 2024/25 and 2025/26, we are offering retention payments worth up to £6,000 after tax for mathematics teachers working in disadvantaged schools in the first five years of their careers.This investment is starting to deliver. In the West Midlands specifically, there has been a 20% increase in candidates accepting offers to teach mathematics compared to last year (4 percentage points higher than the total national mathematics increase) and an increase of 340 teachers (headcount) in secondary schools between 2023/24 and 2024/25.

What steps he is taking to improve access to respite care for unpaid carers in Sutton Coldfield constituency.

The Government recognises the vital role of unpaid carers and is committed to ensuring they have the support they need.The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to deliver a wide range of sustainable, high-quality care and support services, which can include respite support for carers.To help local authorities fulfil their duties, including to unpaid carers, the 2025 Spending Review allows for an increase of over £4 billion of funding available for adult social care in 2028/29 compared to 2025/26.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, when her Department will release funds that the UK committed this year to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization's project entitled The Financing For Shock-Driven Food Crisis Facility; and how much funding will be provided to the project.

The UK is committed to tackling extreme hunger and preventing famine globally. Whilst the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has not made a financial commitment to the Food and Agriculture Organization's new Facility, we have been supportive of its development, since its inception under the Italian 2024 G7 Presidency.We are supportive of the aims of the Facility to make more finance available for tackling hunger crises and to ensure it reaches the most vulnerable and hardest hit ahead of, or quickly after, a disaster strikes. We finance anticipatory action through the UN, NGOs and others, and are spearheading international efforts to scale up Pre Arranged Finance.Last year, we provided grants through the African Development Bank which supported 10 African countries to address drought and tropical cyclone insurance costs, protecting 7.5 million people against drought.

How many Best Start Family Hubs are planned for the West Midlands.

Ensuring every child has the best start in life and the chance to achieve and to thrive are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.The department will spend close to £1.5 billion over the next three years on improving family services and early years education to begin the hard work needed to deliver these changes.We will fund Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority to ensure that children and families who need support the most, especially those from low-income backgrounds or with additional vulnerabilities, can access it. These hubs will be open to all families but will be located in disadvantaged communities where support is most needed.Local authorities will identify family hub sites and the numbers of hubs and services delivered will vary depending on local needs.The department will be providing guidance to local authorities in time to support service delivery from April 2026.

How many and what proportion of parents with (a) three and (a) four year old children used their entitlement to 15 hours of free childcare in Sutton Coldfield constituency in 2024.

The government wants all children, regardless of background, to have access to high quality early education and childcare. The Best Start in Life strategy sets out our plan to work with local authorities to increase take-up of the 15 hours of early education and childcare offer for two, three and four year-olds, ensuring low-income families, children with special educational needs and disabilities and children in care receive the early education they are entitled to. We will engage directly with local authorities where take-up is lowest, supporting families through Best Start Family Hubs to take up their funded hours, addressing local variation in performance and tracking data through the new Local Government Outcomes Framework.Information on the number and proportion of eligible children registered for 15 hours of free childcare is available and published annually in the accredited official statistics release ‘Funded early education and childcare’, which can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare/2025. This has been available since 17 July 2025. Information on the local authority of the child is collected and published, but this information is not available at a constituency level.

What steps he is taking to help reduce the time taken to provide treatment for people with an eating disorder.

In 2024/25, we provided £106 million in funding to children’s eating disorder services, an increase of £10 million over 2023/24. This increase is helping clinicians to support more young people. Between April and June 2025, 3,138 children and young people successfully entered treatment in community eating disorder services. This is the highest figure on record since 2021. At the same time, waiting lists to begin routine eating disorder treatment have shortened by 20% from the year before and we are working with NHS England to meet the waiting time standards for eating disorder services for children and young people. NHS England is currently seeking to expand the capacity of children’s community eating disorder services, to allow for crisis care and intensive home treatment. Improved care in the community will give young people early access to evidence-based treatment involving families and carers, improving outcomes and preventing relapse. We have also committed to expanding mental health support teams to cover 100% of pupils in England by December 2030, aiding school staff in recognising eating disorders and providing early intervention for children at risk. Early intervention is also a priority for adults with eating disorders, as set out in the community mental health framework. NHS England has established 15 provider collaboratives focusing on adult eating disorders, which are working to redesign care pathways and focus resources on community services.

Pursuant to the Answer of 28 July 2025 to Question 69007 on Stop and Search: West Midlands, whether the number of times stop and search powers were used under Serious Violence Reduction Orders in the West Midlands pilot will be published as part of the final independent evaluation of the scheme.

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 SVRO pilot has been independently evaluated. The final evaluation report of the pilot, due shortly, will look at the effectiveness of SVROs overall, including the use of the SVRO stop and search power and the effectiveness of SVROs in reducing reoffending and knife carrying.Further information on the evaluation report and its findings will be available in due course.

What discussions he has had with representatives of the hospitality industry on job losses in the West Midlands since the Autumn Budget 2024.

The Government recognises the vital role hospitality businesses play in driving employment and supporting local economies including in the West Midlands. We also understand the pressures they face. That’s why our Plan for Small Businesses delivers the most comprehensive support package in a generation, cutting red tape and increasing access to finance.The Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for RHL properties with rateable values below £500,000, from 2026-27. The Department for Business and Trade regularly engages with representatives from the hospitality sector, through the Hospitality Sector Council, to co-create solutions to the issues impacting business performance, including jobs and skills. In addition the Hospitality Fund is backing projects that will include addressing skills gaps in the sector and boosting productivity.