Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to help ensure the new owners of Royal Mail honour agreements made with the Communication Workers Union and his Department.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Secretary of State met Dave Ward, General Secretary of the CWU, and Daniel Křetínský, the owner of EP Group, on 16 February and again on 19 March 2026, to understand the progress on continued discussions on the CWU Agreement.
The undertakings agreed between the Secretary of State and EP Group include provisions that require an independently assessed review of EP Group’s compliance with the Deed of Undertaking.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help address harmful cat breeding practices, including the breeding of wildcat hybrids.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As part of the Animal Welfare Strategy, which was published on 22 December 2025, the Government will take steps to improve our understanding of the size, scale and current management practices related to cat breeding, drawing on expertise from the sector, and consider any further steps which may improve welfare practices in the cat breeding sector.
The keeping of dangerous wild animals is regulated by the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976. Keepers of dangerous wild animals listed in the Schedule to the 1976 Act must get a Dangerous Wild Animals licence from their local authority. All cats are listed in the Schedule to the Act, although several species, such as the domestic cat, are exempted. Cat hybrids having a domestic cat, or other exempted species, as one parent and a non-exempted cat, such as a wildcat, as the other parent would require a Dangerous Wild Animals licence.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of a 36-hour week for full time NHS staff at no loss of pay.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This specific assessment has not been made.
National Health Service staff covered by the Agenda for Change (AfC) pay system in England work 37.5 hours per week in line with the terms set out in Section 10 of the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook (TCS), also referred to as the AfC terms and conditions. The NHS Staff Council is responsible for maintaining the handbook. There are no current discussions between Government and the NHS Staff Council about reducing the number of hours full time AfC staff work in England.
The number of full-time hours for medical staff in England as stipulated in their respective TCS is 40 hours. Less than full time options are available to all staff. A flat allowance of £1,000 is received by any less than full time resident doctor, which recognises the relative increased costs of training that doctors training less than full time face as a result of being less than full time.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many recorded sewage spills and leaks into (a) rivers, (b) coastal waters and (c) other inland waterways there have been in England in the last 12 months; and what assessment his Department has made of trends in the number of such incidents.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Sewage spills can enter water bodies from a number of sources and pathways. One mechanism is via storm overflows, designed to spill into water bodies when the sewer system is under strain from rainfall or snowmelt. Storm overflows are tracked through Event Duration Monitors in near real time.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many medical students graduated from UK universities in each of the last five years; and how many doctors completed foundation training in each of the last five years.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Data published by the General Medical Council (GMC) provides information on the number of doctors with a United Kingdom Primary Medical Qualification (PMQ) by year. The following table shows the number of doctors graduating from UK medical schools in each of the last five years who then registered with the GMC:
PMQ Year | Total |
2020 | 7,381 |
2021 | 7,356 |
2022 | 7,810 |
2023 | 8,279 |
2024 | 9,261 |
2025 | 9,734 |
Source: General Medical Council, UK graduates summary data, with further information available at the following link:
https://gde.gmc-uk.org/medical-schools/uk-graduates/uk-graduates-summary-data
Note: total represents the total number of doctors with a UK Primary Medical Qualification in that year who went onto register with the GMC.
Medical graduates complete a two-year Foundation Programme following graduation from medical school. Successful completion of the programme occurs at the end of Foundation Year Two (F2). Data on the number of doctors completing foundation training is published by the GMC through its Education Data Tool. Successful completion of foundation training is interpreted as completion of F2.
The following table shows data published by the GMC on the number of doctors completing F2 in each of the last five years:
Foundation Two Year | Number of F2 doctors |
2019 | 7,195 |
2020 | 7,379 |
2021 | 7,686 |
2022 | 7,655 |
2023 | 7,591 |
Source: General Medical Council, Education Data Tool Progression Reports, with further information available at the following link:
https://edt.gmc-uk.org/progression-reports/recruitment-from-f2
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many current cases are there where Work Capability Assessments have taken longer than the 13 weeks set out in departmental guidelines.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It might be helpful to explain that the 13 weeks set out in departmental guidelines only applies to the assessment phase of Employment Support Allowance. It is the guideline for when the department expects a decision to be made upon entitlement to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) and is not a deadline for when a Work Capability Assessment (WCA) should be conducted by.
Due to this we have interpreted your question to mean how many ESA new claims the assessment suppliers currently hold that have been waiting for a WCA longer than 13 weeks.
As of 23rd February 2026, there are 6,500 new claims ESA cases that have been awaiting a WCA assessment for over 13 weeks.
Where an assessment takes longer than 13 weeks to complete, we will automatically award arrears from the 14th week of the claim, where appropriate, so that claimants do not lose out.
Please Note
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will instruct Local Authorities to disregard the compensation and pensions of veterans as a form of council income.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Councils tax support for working-age people is locally designed. Councils must review their schemes each year and make any changes in consultation with their residents. Support for pensioners is prescribed in regulations which are updated by the department each year in line with changes to the wider benefit system. For 2026-27, the regulations include new capital disregards for the Armed Forces LGBT Financial Recognition Scheme and the Miscarriage of Justice Compensation Scheme.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is the average processing time for Employment Support Allowance and Personal Independence Payments.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on average processing time for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) can be found on Stat-Xplore (https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk/).
The requested data can be found in the ‘Clearance Times for Initial Claims’ dataset. Stat-Xplore will automatically select the latest completed assessment date. However, you can use the ‘Completed Assessment Date’ filter to produce completed assessment for a time period of your choice. You can expand ‘Measures’ and then ‘Clearance Time Breakdowns for Initial Claims’ to produce a breakdown of different types of clearance times. For average processing time covering claim registration date to DWP decision date, we suggest choosing the ‘Median of End-to-end Process (weekdays)’ measure. You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user.
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) clearance times are available as part of the PIP Official Statistics quarterly release. The latest release, with data available to October 2025, is available here (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/personal-independence-payment-statistics-april-2013-to-october-2025). Table 1A in the underlying Excel tables of this release shows median average clearance times for normal rules new claims.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether (a) guidance has been provided to Dudley Council on the treatment of Armed Forces compensation in means-testing for Disabled Facilities Grants and (b) the Government’s commission on adult social care will consider reform to the treatment of Armed Forces compensation in means testing for the Disabled Facilities Grant.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In March 2022, the Government published Disabled Facilities Grant (DFG) guidance for local authorities in England. It includes a section on the Armed Forces community and can be found here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/disabled-facilities-grant-dfg-delivery-guidance-for-local-authorities-in-england
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government funds Foundations, the national body for the Disabled Facilities Grant and Home Improvement Agencies, to work with local authorities on all aspects of delivery. We are not aware of any specific guidance provided to Dudley Council; however, local authorities have a considerable degree of discretion in how they deliver home adaptation grants. This includes the power to fully disregard all military compensation payments in the application of the means test.
Baroness Casey, chair of the Independent Commission into adult social care, is looking at what fundamental reforms will be needed in adult social care. The Commission's Terms of Reference is sufficiently broad to enable Baroness Casey to define its remit to independently consider how to build a social care system fit for the future.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will facilitate a vote on proposals for financial redress contained in the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report on changes to women's State Pension age, published on 21 March 2024.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has made its decision on this case based on due process and careful consideration of the body of evidence. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made a statement to the House of Commons and the detailed reasons for this decision have been placed in House library.