Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the number of verifications of catch certificates accompanying seafood imports undertaken by UK authorities.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra and the Marine Management Organisation work closely with Devolved Governments, Local Authorities and Port Health Authorities to ensure illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing documentary checks are completed at the border and appropriate verifications are conducted on seafood imports to the UK . Verifications, defined under Article 17 of the UK's IUU Regulation, are formal checks beyond standard documentary reviews. Competent Authorities conduct risk-based checks, and if concerns arise, the MMO may hold consignments and carry out verifications.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
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) preparing and (b) publishing a national strategy for (i) palliative and (ii) end-of-life care.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is developing a Palliative Care and End of Life Care Modern Service Framework (MSF) for England. I refer the hon. member to the Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1087 I gave to the House on 24 November 2025.
The MSF will drive improvements in the services that patients and their families receive at the end of life and enable integrated care boards to address challenges in access, quality and sustainability through the delivery of high-quality, personalised care. This will be aligned with the ambitions set out in the recently published 10-Year Health Plan.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
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 with the Crown Prosecution Service to prosecute environmental crimes.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Environmental crimes and prosecutions are generally undertaken by the Environment Agency (EA) as the Environmental Regulator and not by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The CPS does prosecute some particular environmental crimes, for the police's National Wildlife Crime Unit, such as in relation to poaching and even CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).
Where appropriate, and where there is linked offending, the EA can coordinate investigations into suspected environmental offending with other bodies, including the police.
Asked by: Chris Hinchliff (Labour - North East Hertfordshire)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Government is taking to ensure that taxpayer-funded support, including grants and tax reliefs, for AI and data centre funding provides benefits to the public.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Through AI Growth Zones we are ensuring that local communities benefit by providing £5 million for each AI Growth Zone to support skills and adoption in the area, and by ensuring that local authorities in England keep 100% of all business rates generated by sites where pre-existing arrangements do not exist.
The AI Growth Zones programme aims to crowd-in tens of billions of pounds in private investment and drive growth through job creation and by creating opportunities such as creating skills and apprenticeships pathways, R+D partnerships with local universities and creating investment opportunities for British businesses to participate in major AI projects.