Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what her Department's policy is on choosing whether to issue an Emergency Alert nationally or to target a specific geographical location; and whether she plans to enhance the system's proportionality and precision to help maintain public confidence and reduce risk of alert fatigue.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
Emergency Alerts in the UK will be sent where there is a risk to life in a defined area and the public must take immediate action. In the case of the recent activation regarding wildfires this was requested by the National Fire Chiefs Council, and the Alert content and broadcast area was coordinated between government and responding public bodies.
Each request is evaluated by the Cabinet Office on a rigorous, case-by-case basis to ensure it is necessary for public safety. While we strive to use this tool sparingly, the Cabinet Office remains committed to reviewing every alert request with the utmost care to balance public awareness with the potential for public fatigue. The Department conducts internal evaluation after each deployment of the capability and is committed to continuously improving this valuable service to keep people safe.
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, what assessment has been made of NHS Trusts willingness and financial ability to take on new specialty medical training posts for the August 2026 recruitment round.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As the first step in delivering the expansion of specialty training posts by up to 4,500 in England over the next three years, more than 350 additional places were made available in August, with the aim of them starting in February 2027. To deliver this, and the remaining additional places due for 2027, the Government asked trusts to submit expressions of interest based on identified service needs, training capacity and training quality. As part of this process, it is expected that trusts assess their capacity and resources to deliver these posts, making better use of existing temporary staffing expenditure, for example on locum, bank and agency spend to convert these into substantive training posts.
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, what steps she is taking through penalties to help tackle the sale of illegal tobacco and vapes.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Asked by: Cat Eccles (Labour - Stourbridge)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of sanctions on companies involved in settlements in the West Bank on the medicines supply chain.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The measures announced by the Foreign Secretary on 8 September will include restrictions on the import into the UK of goods originating in illegal settlements. These measures will be carefully designed to target trade with illegal settlements, while protecting legitimate trade between the UK and ‘Green Line’ Israel, including medicines and medical products. The current assessment is that the potential impact on the medicines supply chain will be low, but we will continue to monitor this following the announcement of the measures, in line with the standard process when introducing new Statutory Instruments.
Detailed guidance will be published alongside the implementing legislation to clarify the implications for UK businesses, and we will work closely with industry partners to maintain the medical supply trade and ensure continuity of supply to UK patients.
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, when his Department plans to publish the consultation on the introduction of mandatory reporting and health targets for large food businesses.
Answered by Sharon Hodgson
The 10-Year Health Plan commits that by the end of this Parliament, we will introduce mandatory healthier food sales reporting for all large companies in the sector. We will also introduce new targets to increase the healthiness of sales.
We intend to launch a full public consultation soon to gather a wide range of views on our policy proposals. Final decisions on policy design and implementation will be taken following consultation.
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, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that NHS patients are not missing (a) appointments and (b) operations due to Royal Mail delivery delays (i) in the Stourbridge constituency and (ii) elsewhere.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential impact of postal delays on the timely delivery of referral letters between primary and secondary care. The monitoring of National Health Service patient correspondence, including appointment letters, is the responsibility of individual NHS providers.
We are streamlining information and communication processes, shifting from analogue to digital, including by improving the NHS App. This will make it easier and quicker for patients to access information about their appointments, to cancel and reschedule appointments, and to receive correspondence on NHS test results.
All acute trusts in England now allow patients to view appointment information via the NHS App if they wish, reducing reliance on physical letters. This saves staff time to focus on providing high quality, non-digital communication for those who want and need it. NHS App usage has increased, with over 41.6 million all-time NHS App account registrations up to the end of May 2026, 10% more than at May 2025.
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, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Royal Mail delivery delays on NHS service delivery, including in Stourbridge constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
No assessment has been made of the potential impact of postal delays on the timely delivery of referral letters between primary and secondary care. The monitoring of National Health Service patient correspondence, including appointment letters, is the responsibility of individual NHS providers.
We are streamlining information and communication processes, shifting from analogue to digital, including by improving the NHS App. This will make it easier and quicker for patients to access information about their appointments, to cancel and reschedule appointments, and to receive correspondence on NHS test results.
All acute trusts in England now allow patients to view appointment information via the NHS App if they wish, reducing reliance on physical letters. This saves staff time to focus on providing high quality, non-digital communication for those who want and need it. NHS App usage has increased, with over 41.6 million all-time NHS App account registrations up to the end of May 2026, 10% more than at May 2025.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure current Royal Mail delays do not affect people's ability to comply with his Department's deadlines.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The delays to Royal Mail delivery have not had an impact on DWPs ability to deliver its services. DWP has robust plans in place that will be invoked should disruption to service occur, these plans include extension of DWP deadlines that can be invoked to ensure our customers are not impacted negatively.
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 steps his Department is taking to ensure current Royal Mail delays do not affect people's access to payments.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The delays to Royal Mail delivery have not had an impact on DWPs ability to deliver its services. DWP has robust plans in place that will be invoked should disruption to service occur, these plans include extension of DWP deadlines that can be invoked to ensure our customers are not impacted negatively.
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 measures are in place to ensure that recipients of Universal Credit, State Pension and other DWP support are not financially disadvantaged by delayed postal communications, including in Stourbridge constituency.
Answered by Andrew Western - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The delays to Royal Mail delivery have not had an impact on DWPs ability to deliver its services. DWP has robust plans in place that will be invoked should disruption to service occur, these plans include extension of DWP deadlines that can be invoked to ensure our customers are not impacted negatively.