The Government is restoring the founding promise of the National Health Service, to bring quality healthcare to all, regardless of how much you earn or where you live. Local integrated care boards (ICBs) are responsible for the design and commissioning of health care services to best meet the needs of their local population including in more rural areas such as Bromsgrove.

However, we are working across all areas to establish new neighbourhood services and also improve against the key NHS access standards set out in the NHS’s Constitution and are making progress with improvements in waiting times for elective and urgent and emergency care.

Additionally new funding for general practitioners is being prioritised for areas where the need is greatest, and we're sending more cancer specialists to rural hospitals. As we modernise the health service, the NHS App and NHS Online will bring world class healthcare to the most remote corners of our country at the touch of a button.

As an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body of the Home Office, the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is operationally independent and responsible for the service it provides.

DBS does not collate data on processing times by local area or constituency.

The most recently published performance data for the last quarter of 2025-26 can be viewed at: DBS dataset 1: DBS checks, the DBS Update Service, and disputes - GOV.UK.

This information provides the average time taken to complete all levels of check and shows that the target to process 85% of Basic checks within 2 days and 85% of Standard checks within 3 days was consistently exceeded. The target to complete 80% of Enhanced level checks within 14 days was not met, with the average attainment being 74.7% and the 80% target met on day 20. The average turnaround time for Enhanced level checks was 12.6 days.

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including provision of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services.

In respect of ADHD, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline does not set out a timeframe within which medication should be provided or reviewed, but it does say that children, young people, and adults receiving treatment for ADHD have reviews and follow-ups according to the severity of their condition, regardless of whether or not they are taking medication.

The NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB has taken direct action on medication reviews for ADHD. It has commissioned reviewing capacity from both local general practice federations to undertake medication reviews for adults. It has commissioned additional nurse prescribing capacity in the local trust for children, to ensure that medication is initiated in a timely way and that reviews are undertaken at the required frequency.

Additionally, NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire have agreed pathways for adults and children which blend the use of Right to Choose, National Health Service trusts, and commissioned independent providers, all designed to improve outcomes and experiences and to maximise efficiency. This will be enhanced with the introduction of a new commissioning policy in the summer.

Miscarriage can have a devastating impact on women and their families, and we are determined that they receive the support they need. As part of the renewed Women’s Health Strategy, we have committed to closely reviewing the findings presented in the Tommy’s graded model of care study, as part of our broader work on miscarriage care.

Bereaved parents receiving care at the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust are offered support seven days a week from bereavement midwives, and all bereaved parents are signposted to national and local support groups and counselling. Beacon Maternal Mental Health Service provides support for those experiencing loss and complicated grief around pregnancy loss.

We have set clear ambitions for community health services through our Medium Term Planning Framework and for the first time, we have set a target for systems to reduce long waits for community health services. By 2028/29, at least 80% of community health services activity should take place within 18 weeks, bringing community health services in line with targets for elective care.

In 2025, we published Standardising Community Health Services which provides an overview of community health services. Further guidance was published in February 2026 to add additional detail to the community health services integrated care boards should commission. This includes neurodiverse assessments for children.

The Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care Trust and NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board have been working in partnership to reduce neurodiversity diagnostic waits. The current waiting times have been reduced through considerable investment in outsourced assessments, totalling 1,150 additional neurodivergence assessments for children across Worcestershire, increasing investment in clinicians to create NHS capacity and transformation work within the service to ensure evidence based, safe, and high-quality care is delivered whilst we recover the waiting times.

The National Health Service trust and integrated care board have a three year plan to address long waits in a sustainable way that includes increased investment in health care professionals to increase the capacity of the service, the outsourcing of assessments from trusted private providers for those waiting the longest, and a pre and post diagnostic service for neurodivergence support, commissioned by the integrated care board, expected to commence later this year.

Through this work the expectation for Worcestershire is the following:

• all waits to be below 104 weeks by end of March 2027;
• all waits to be below 52 weeks by end of March 2028; and
• all waits to be below 18 weeks by end of March 2029.

The Government is committed to improving outcomes for people with prostate cancer and reducing inequalities in access to diagnosis across England, including in Bromsgrove.

The National Cancer Plan for England, published in February 2026, sets out action to improve earlier diagnosis, speed up treatment, and ensure that patients can benefit from advances in cancer care, regardless of where they live. Patients across England will benefit from expanded diagnostic capacity, including community diagnostic centres, improved use of data to identify delays, and the rollout of innovative technologies and diagnostic pathways.

NHS England and integrated care boards are supported to identify and address unwarranted variation in access to diagnostics, so that patients can access high‑quality testing regardless of where they live.

The Plan is backed by significant funding committed by the Government at the Spending Review, including £200 million in 2026/27 for local Cancer Alliances. Cancer Alliances are expected to use this funding to deliver local early diagnosis plans, including activity to improve awareness and access to testing for cancers such as prostate cancer, based on local need. In Bromsgrove, as elsewhere in England, access to testing is delivered in line with national standards and local commissioning decisions made by integrated care boards, supported by Cancer Alliances.

The Government has accepted the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation to introduce a targeted prostate cancer screening programme for men with a known BRCA2 gene variant and a family history of prostate, breast, ovarian, or pancreatic cancer. Screening using the prostate specific antigen test will be offered to all eligible men between the ages of 45 and 61 years old every two years starting from 2027.

On 2 June 2026, the Government announced up to £20 million of investment to improve prostate cancer research and treatment, including up to £18 million to expand the TRANSFORM trial so that all eligible Black men will be invited to take part in stage 2. The TRANSFORM trial, which is co-funded by Prostate Cancer UK and the National Institute of Health and Care Research, the Department’s research arm, is testing the best ways to detect prostate cancer earlier and save more lives, while avoiding unnecessary treatment and the associated harms.

What steps he is taking to support pubs in Bromsgrove constituency.

I understand that rising energy prices and the wider supply chain effects can place particular strain on sectors such as pubs and the wider hospitality sector, which often rely on that discretionary spending, and operate on tight margins. I have met lots of such businesses up and down the country over recent weeks, and I know that the current situation with energy prices, especially given what is happening in Iran, is causing a lot of concern. Across Government, we are considering carefully this area as part of our ongoing assessment of economic conditions and support mechanisms. We absolutely want to support our pubs and the hospitality sector, as they are vital to our local communities and high streets. It is vital that we provide the economic stability that we have shown this year, ensuring that the economy can keep growing, wages can rise, and people can have money to spend to support our pubs and our hospitality sector.

I thank the Minister for her response, but I am afraid that the picture she paints is not one that pubs across my constituency will recognise. A typical pub in my constituency is paying around £2,500 in additional costs a month compared with two years ago, because of a rise in energy costs, employment costs and business rates. If the Minister is serious about supporting the hospitality sector, will the Government look at a permanent cut to business rates for pubs and exempt pubs with accommodation from the overnight levy?

Pubs in Bromsgrove are vital to the local economy, supporting jobs and bringing communities together. I welcome success stories such as the Gate at Bournheath being named Bromsgrove and the villages’ pub of the year 2026, highlighting the strength of the sector. The Government are committed to backing pubs with permanently lower business rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties, and an additional 15% relief for pubs. We have also significantly increased the hospitality support fund to £10 million to help businesses invest, grow and remain resilient. That fund will help more than 1,000 pubs to diversify their business models, improve efficiency and productivity in the sector, and support people who are furthest from the labour market to move into jobs in hospitality.

I refer the hon. Member to the answers given to Questions UIN 123090 on 31 March 2026 and UIN 85213 on 4 November 2025.

It is the responsibility of integrated care boards (ICBs) to make available appropriate provision to meet the health and care needs of their local population, including provision of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services, in line with relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines.

The Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB is committed to wait times for ADHD assessment of less than 18 weeks, however, there are known waits for children and young people to access ADHD diagnostic assessment services due to an increase in demand. There are currently 1,600 children and young people waiting for an assessment via an NHS provider, with an average wait time of 60 weeks. For adults, ADHD assessments are conducted by Right to Choose providers only and these services typically have a waiting time below the 18-week standard.

All patients, including children and young people, can access the Right to Choose pathway for ADHD assessments through their general practice, allowing them to select an alternative provider if the waiting time for NHS services exceeds 18 weeks at the point of referral. The ICB has put in place a number of contracts under Right to Choose to improve choice for patients and is working with its NHS commissioned services to reduce long waits. It has also commissioned additional capacity for those children waiting over 104 weeks in the NHS service in 2025/26 and will continue this in 2026/27.

For children, medication is provided by the NHS commissioned service, and the waiting time is six to eight weeks for first medication reviews, and four to six months to initiate medication following diagnosis. It should be noted that NICE guidelines expect non-pharmaceutical interventions to be considered before medication for all children. The ICB is investing in the local NHS commissioned service to increase medication treatment capacity. For adults, the only pathway available for ADHD assessments is Right to Choose. The ICB advises that there is no waiting list for these patients as they will automatically be initiated and titrated for medication, where that is identified as an appropriate treatment.

Furthermore, the ICB is at the end of a tendering process for a Neurodivergence Support Service for zero to 25 year olds and their families, and this should go live from September 2026. The ICB is considering commissioning a service for adults age 25 years old and over from April 2027.

More broadly, NHS England issued advice to systems on ADHD service delivery and prioritisation on 7 October 2025. This advice includes guidance on managing service provisions, reviewing waiting lists, and providing patient support. The advice can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/adhd-service-delivery-and-prioritisation-advice-to-systems/

Through the NHS Medium-Term Planning Framework, published 24 October 2025, NHS England has set clear expectations for local ICBs and trusts to improve access, experience, and outcomes for ADHD services over the next three years, focusing on improving quality and productivity. The framework was explicit that ICBs and providers are expected to optimise existing resources to reduce long waits for ADHD assessments and improve the quality of assessments by implementing existing and new guidance, as published.