Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the quantity of Venezuelan drug exports prevented from being smuggled to the UK in each year since 2020.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Drug misuse can have a devastating impact on the safety, productivity, and health and wellbeing of our communities. Cocaine is smuggled into the UK via a number of different routes and methodologies, which frequently change in response to international law enforcement activity. The Home Office does not publish data by country of origin. Since the beginning of 2020, Border Force, across England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland have seized the following amounts of cocaine from overseas:
Year | Amount of cocaine seized (Kgs) |
2020 | 6,512 |
2021 | 16,044 |
2022 | 16,337.33 |
2023 | 18,038.14 |
2024 | 26,143.19 |
2025 (Q1 & Q2) | 15,268.37 |
The National Crime Agency’s National Strategic Assessment 2025 on Drugs provides further detail on cocaine flows and can be found here - NSA 2025 - Drugs - National Crime Agency.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Housing Sec pledges to 'go further than ever before' to hit 1.5 million homes, published on 16 December 2025, if he will set out the conflicting policies that his Department will over-ride.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The reference in question relates to the proposed transitional arrangements for implementing changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, on which the government is currently consulting.
Details of the proposed transitional arrangements are set out in Annex A of the draft text on which we are consulting.
The consultation can be found on gov.uk here and will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the value of a) grants and b) other forms of financial assistance to charities working in the immigration sector was in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government publishes data on grant funding annually in the Government grants register on gov.uk.
Grant funding for the period 2023/24 is publicly available. Grants funding data for 2024/25 will be published in March 2026. Grants funding data for 2025/26 is scheduled for publication in March 2027.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total expected value is of the media strategy, planning, and buying contract awarded to WPP Media; and what estimated cost savings will result from reducing the number of suppliers under the new agreement.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
WPP Media has been awarded a place on Lot 1 of the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) RM6364 Media and Creative Services agreement.
The agreement, managed by CCS, will play an important role in ensuring that the UK public receives clear, accurate, and authoritative information from the government. By uniting media planning and buying under a single agency, the government will streamline its work to reach target audiences more effectively across diverse platforms. This consolidation is designed to drive value, improve operational efficiency, and ensure more effective media buying for every pound of public money spent.
Spend and related savings will be determined by individual public sector bodies based on their specific requirements.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what performance indicators will be used to evaluate WPP Media’s provision of media planning and buying services across Government; and how often performance will be reviewed.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Crown Commercial Service reviews framework-level performance on a quarterly basis, including pricing commitments, financial transparency, social value delivery, and client satisfaction.
Individual departments are responsible for managing day-to-day performance and specific service-level agreements for their own call-off contracts.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the quantity of Venezuelan drug exports smuggled into the UK in each year since 2020.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Drug misuse can have a devastating impact on the safety, productivity, and health and wellbeing of our communities. Cocaine is smuggled into the UK via a number of different routes and methodologies, which frequently change in response to international law enforcement activity. The Home Office does not publish data by country of origin. Since the beginning of 2020, Border Force, across England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland have seized the following amounts of cocaine from overseas:
Year | Amount of cocaine seized (Kgs) |
2020 | 6,512 |
2021 | 16,044 |
2022 | 16,337.33 |
2023 | 18,038.14 |
2024 | 26,143.19 |
2025 (Q1 & Q2) | 15,268.37 |
The National Crime Agency’s National Strategic Assessment 2025 on Drugs provides further detail on cocaine flows and can be found here - NSA 2025 - Drugs - National Crime Agency.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps the Government is taking to support churches which have been damaged through criminal activity.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
All forms of racial and religious discrimination are completely unacceptable, including that directed at Christians and Christian places of worship.
Churches occupy a valuable position in society through their access to citizens, their role within local communities and their good relationships with other faith groups and this Government is committed to protecting individuals' right to practise their religion freely at their chosen place of worship, and to making our streets and communities safer.
The Government has extended the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme for 2025/26, which gives grants towards VAT paid on repairs and renovations to the nation's listed sites of worship across the UK, which includes churches. Churches are also eligible for funded protective security measures through the Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme. This scheme offers physical security enhancements, such as CCTV, intruder alarms and secure perimeter fencing.
Crimes against churches can already be recorded as hate crimes. Any religiously aggravated criminal damage is an offence under section 30 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, carrying a higher maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment. An offence is considered religiously aggravated, if at or around the time of committing the offence, the offender demonstrates hostility towards a religious group, therefore, including any crimes against churches.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department plans to reclassify crimes against churches as hate crimes.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
All forms of racial and religious discrimination are completely unacceptable, including that directed at Christians and Christian places of worship.
Churches occupy a valuable position in society through their access to citizens, their role within local communities and their good relationships with other faith groups and this Government is committed to protecting individuals' right to practise their religion freely at their chosen place of worship, and to making our streets and communities safer.
The Government has extended the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme for 2025/26, which gives grants towards VAT paid on repairs and renovations to the nation's listed sites of worship across the UK, which includes churches. Churches are also eligible for funded protective security measures through the Places of Worship Protective Security Scheme. This scheme offers physical security enhancements, such as CCTV, intruder alarms and secure perimeter fencing.
Crimes against churches can already be recorded as hate crimes. Any religiously aggravated criminal damage is an offence under section 30 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, carrying a higher maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment. An offence is considered religiously aggravated, if at or around the time of committing the offence, the offender demonstrates hostility towards a religious group, therefore, including any crimes against churches.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will list the stakeholders her Department consulted in developing the Animal Welfare Strategy.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Animal Welfare Strategy was published on 22 December and sets out our priorities for animal welfare, focusing on the changes and improvements the department aim to achieve by 2030.
The Animal Welfare Strategy has been developed in conjunction with key stakeholders including representatives of the companion, wild companion, wild animal and farming sectors along with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), and those involved in enforcement. The department has held roundtable discussions on priorities whilst working to understand the underlying issues that lead to poor welfare. The department also received input from a wide range of other interested parties. Defra will continue to engage with stakeholders as we deliver on the strategy.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that businesses operating in high‑risk sectors are aware of the foreign bribery indicators published by the Serious Fraud Office and Five Eyes partners.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The government takes foreign bribery risks seriously and is committed to helping businesses identify and prevent them. This is why in December 2025, this government published the new UK Anti-Corruption Strategy. The strategy seeks to bring more corrupt actors to justice, prevents them benefitting from their illicit wealth, tackles vulnerabilities to corruption at home and builds resilience overseas. It also commits to helping UK businesses to combat bribery through the Serious Fraud Office’s crime prevention capability and a new online anti bribery resource collection for small and medium-sized enterprises.
The Serious Fraud Office, working with its Five Eyes partners, has published indicators to help businesses recognise potential bribery risks. These indicators are available on the Serious Fraud Office website.
The Department for Business and Trade supports this work by signposting guidance to high-risk sectors and encouraging businesses to embed these indicators into their compliance and due diligence processes.
The government will continue to work with enforcement agencies and international partners to raise awareness and strengthen the UK’s approach to preventing foreign bribery, in line with the OECD Working Group on Bribery recommendations.