With around one million young people not in education, employment or training, the Government is investing £2.5 billion by 2029 to deliver its Youth Guarantee and ensure young people have the opportunity to earn or learn.

Young disabled people in the West Midlands will benefit from the full breadth of Youth Guarantee Support. This includes an expanded network of Youth Hubs and earlier intensive support in Jobcentres through a new Youth Guarantee Gateway, in which every young person on Universal Credit looking for work will receive tailored support from their first appointment in the Jobcentre. Youth Employability Coaches (YEC) are a key part are a key part in this, providing flexible support to young people with significant, complex needs and barriers to help them move into employment. YEC support operates alongside Jobcentre work coaches, Disability Employment Advisors (DEA), Employment and Partnership teams and work coaches based in Youth Hubs to provide a seamless service for young people.

The Youth Guarantee is also expanding access to opportunities that help young people move into employment. This investment will create 300,000 additional opportunities to gain workplace experience and training and help unlock up to 200,000 additional employment opportunities through the £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant, a £2,000 apprenticeship hiring payment for employers, and the Jobs Guarantee scheme, providing long-term unemployed 18–24-year-olds with a fully funded six-month job. From April 2027, the Jobs Guarantee will be expanded to include eligible young disabled people and those with long-term health conditions, with the Government fast-tracking access to the scheme for these groups to widen employment opportunities through the wider Youth Guarantee offer helping to tackle the persistently high disability employment gap.

Alongside this, young disabled people in the West Midlands can benefit from Connect to Work, the Government's voluntary, locally led supported employment programme. The West Midlands Mayoral Strategic Authority receives devolved funding through its Integrated Settlement to deliver specialist employment support to disabled people, people with health conditions and those facing more complex barriers to employment. Connect to Work will support around 300,000 people by the end of the decade, with around a quarter of participants expected to be aged under 25. Participants receive tailored support from a dedicated employment adviser to help them find, start and sustain employment.

The department is committed to strengthening the special educational needs and disability (SEND) system, including for pupils in mainstream schools with mental health difficulties who have SEND.

The Independent Review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism, found that neurodevelopmental, mental health and physical health conditions frequently occur together, and children with SEND are significantly more likely to experience poor mental health and wellbeing. Early identification of SEND and timely access to appropriate support can improve children's social and emotional wellbeing, reduce distress, improve school belonging and support better mental health.

We are accelerating the rollout of Mental Health Support Teams so that by 2029, all schools and colleges will have access to specialist mental health professionals, and every child and young person can get support before problems escalate.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) publishes monthly practical driving test waiting time data on GOV.UK. This includes the average (median) waiting time between booking and taking the test in weeks.

Information on average waiting times since January 2019 is available in table DRT121G, Car driving test waiting times and availability by country and region, and information on waiting times at individual driving test centres is available in table DRT122F, Car driving test waiting times and availability by driving test centre.

As part of our Environmental Improvement Plan, we will publish a new Pollinator Action Plan, which will set out key actions to support pollinators in England. The Plan applies nationally and will therefore not specify actions for individual regions.

DCMS recognises the important role that the West Midlands’ cultural and heritage assets play in attracting international visitors and supporting regional economic growth. The region continues to benefit from VisitBritain's global screen tourism campaign, "Starring Great Britain", which showcases the UK’s rich film and television locations to inspire overseas visitors to explore destinations beyond London. The campaign highlights major productions set in the region, such as Peaky Blinders, helping to raise the profile of local cultural and heritage attractions with international audiences.

To showcase Britain’s visitor offer and generate new business opportunities, VisitBritain led the tourism delegation to Greater Together Los Angeles in May 2026. Regional partners, including the West Midlands Growth Company and the Caledonian Sleeper, participated in the mission, with the latter promoting its enhanced connectivity through Birmingham International.

VisitBritain also works closely with international travel trade partners to secure regional destinations on global travel itineraries. In January 2026, the West Midlands hosted travel trade buyers from Brazil and France, providing first-hand experience of the region’s visitor offer. The programme showcased a range of cultural, sporting and heritage attractions, including the Black Country Living Museum, Dudley Canal and Caverns, Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, Villa Park, Shababs restaurant in the Balti Triangle, and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

The right hon. Gentleman speaks with enormous authority about these issues and has a proud record in that regard, and I could not agree with him more on the substantive part of his question about the role that international development plays. He may know that as part of our G20 presidency next year we have committed ourselves, in fiscally constrained times, to seeking to do more about the combination of the debt burden, climate breakdown, and the need to bring about growth and tackle poverty in developing countries. We must accept the fiscal constraints that we face, but that does not mean we cannot act through, for instance, the multilateral development banks. I look forward to working on these issues with the right hon. Gentleman, and with other Members on both sides of the House.

I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the answer provided on 21 April in response to Question 124949.

No recent discussions have taken place with West Midlands Police on the prevention of the illegal (a) use and (b) sale of fireworks. Enforcement mechanisms are in place to tackle situations when fireworks are sold illegally or misused. Local areas decide how best to deploy these powers. The Government continues to work with enforcement partners, including local authorities, Trading Standards, Border Force and the Health and Safety Executive, to tackle unsafe products, illegal sales and misuse.

The Government recognises the important contribution that pubs make to local communities, including in Royal Sutton Coldfield. The Government has taken steps to support the sector with eligible pubs benefiting from a 15 per cent business rates reduction from April 2026, followed by a further 20 per cent reduction for pubs, social clubs and qualifying live music venues from April 2027. Taken together, these measures are expected to save the typical pub around £3,100 in 2027-28.

We have also doubled the Hospitality Support Fund to £10m which will help rural pubs to diversify and ensure they can continue to be vital community hubs. We have also ended upward-only rent review clauses and new Community Right to Buy legislation will strengthen powers for local people to buy assets like hospitality venues and pubs before they are lost – keeping them in the hands of the community.

The Government recognises the importance of access to cash and banking services for individuals and businesses, including in Royal Sutton Coldfield. Cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, and the Government is committed to protecting access to cash for individuals and businesses.

The Government is also committed to ensuring that people who need in-person banking can continue to access essential services.

That is why the Government commissioned an independent Review into Access to Banking Services, to assess whether changes to access to in-person banking services are causing consumer detriment, the scale of any detriment, and who it affects, including the digitally excluded. The Review will consider access to in-person banking services for both personal and business customers.

As part of this, the Review will consider existing forms of in-person banking provision. The Post Office provides banking services through over 10,000 branches via the Banking Framework agreement and, as such, the provision of services by the Post Office on behalf of banks will be considered as part of the Review.

Alongside the Review, the Government intends to use the Financial Services and Markets Bill to introduce a power to allow action to be taken in future to protect access to banking services, should the evidence support intervention.

The Department has not held any recent discussions specifically with representatives of independent retailers in the West Midlands on the illegal sale of fireworks. Ministers and officials regularly engage with a wide range of stakeholders on fireworks policy, including retailers, industry representatives, trade associations and enforcement authorities. Enforcement of fireworks legislation is a matter for local authority Trading Standards and the police.

The Government recently concluded a public consultation on targeted reforms to fireworks and pyrotechnics legislation. The evidence submitted by stakeholders, including independent retailers will help inform future policy decisions.

As the Government announced in May this year, the temporary 5p cut to Fuel Duty will be extended until the end of the year, providing certainty to motorists.

In total, the decisions taken since the 2024 general election to freeze Fuel Duty saves motorists 11p per litre or £120 per year for the average car. The Government engages regularly with a wide range of external organisations to inform and strengthen the policymaking process and carefully considers the impact of Fuel Duty on households and businesses.

The department has published a new Enrichment Framework with benchmarks to provide a clear, simple structure against which schools and colleges can evaluate their own provision and make considered improvements to their offer.

It is supported by five Enrichment Ambassadors and the £22.5 million Enrichment Expansion Programme, which will work with over 400 schools in the most deprived areas of England to help them meet the framework's benchmarks.

​This sits alongside wider government programmes, including PE and School Sport Partnerships, the National Centre for Arts Education, National Education Nature Parks, the Cadet Expansion Programme, Erasmus+ and Building Equal Access to Chess in Schools and free enrichment offers through the Free Breakfast Club programme from the LEGO® Group and Youth Sport Trust, in partnership with Sports Directory. In addition, the Every Child Can programme will invest £132.5 million of dormant assets funding in new enrichment activities through schools, community programmes, weekend activities and holiday provision.

With around 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 by 2029 into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy, supporting almost one million young people and creating up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.

Young people in Royal Sutton Coldfield will benefit from the full breadth of Youth Guarantee support, such as an expanded network of Youth Hubs, earlier intensive support in Jobcentres 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 the final recommendations in the Autumn.

I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to the answer provided on 16 July in response to Question 16343.

Kinship carers in Royal Sutton Coldfield have access to support that their local authority is responsible for providing. The recently updated ‘Kinship care statutory guidance for local authorities’ reinforces that supporting kinship care is a whole-system responsibility and that local authorities should provide clear, accessible, whole-family and needs-led support, with children’s voices at the heart of service design and delivery. Further details on the guidance are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6abf6a8defad0f1df672290c/kinship_care_statutory_guidance_for_local_authorities_october_2026.pdf.

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 underpins these reforms by requiring all local authorities to publish a kinship local offer and to offer a Family Group Decision-Making meeting. Further details are available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2026/21/contents.

There are also financial support options for kinship carers in Royal Sutton Coldfield. Funding provided through the Families First Partnership programme supports local authorities to offer Family Network Support Packages, helping families to overcome practical or financial barriers to caring for children within their family network.

Additionally, kinship carers in Royal Sutton Coldfield will benefit from learning emerging from the Kinship Zones programme. Seven Kinship Zones are testing whether providing eligible kinship carers an allowance equivalent to the Fostering National Minimum Allowance improves stability and outcomes for children. Further details on the programme are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-launches-investment-in-support-for-kinship-carers.

We have also extended national peer support groups and training for all kinship carers, regardless of legal order.