Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department distinguishes between legal basis relied upon for support to allied military operations and the general criteria used to determine whether a proposed activity falls within the Government’s stated defensive purpose.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Any decision to determine whether any proposed activity falls within the Government's stated defensive purpose or to support allies is considered on a case-by-case basis. The decision to grant permission is dependent on the nature and purpose of their activity. This includes consideration of the applicable legal and policy frameworks.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of mandatory food waste reporting on the cost of living.
Answered by Mary Creagh
As part of a transition to a circular economy, Defra wants to help businesses reduce food waste and improve efficiency. Through the No10-led Food Waste Endeavour, we are working with food businesses and technology providers to understand how UK companies are using AI technologies to drive reductions in food waste and deliver savings for businesses and how government can best support these data driven solutions. No recent assessment has been made of the potential impact of mandatory food waste reporting on the cost of living.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, whether the Crown Prosecution Service will publish the sentencing outcomes of defendants convicted in cases flagged under the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024-25, broken down by (a) ethnicity, (b) sex and (c) age at sentencing.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The CPS holds information on the sentences imposed following convictions in cases included in the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024–25. As the CPS is not the official record of sentencing the information requested could only be obtained through the manual inspection of individual case files and could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, pursuant to the Answer of 9 July 2026 to Question 16091, Sentencing: Young Offenders, whether the Crown Prosecution Service holds information on the sentences imposed following convictions for defendants in cases included in the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024-25.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Attorney General
The CPS holds information on the sentences imposed following convictions in cases included in the Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024–25. However, the information requested could only be obtained through the manual inspection of individual case files and could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions her Department has had with the British Museum on public-facing signage changes referencing Palestine, Palestinian and Israelite occupation.
Answered by Ian Murray - Minister of State (Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The British Museum is curatorially independent of the Government. Decisions on signage and object labelling are made by curatorial experts at the Museum.
DCMS officials have discussed these matters with British Museum officials to understand the Museum’s decision. We note the Museum’s public statements made in February 2026, which explain the curatorial justifications for two recent changes.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions she has had with the International Maritime Organisation on the mandatory firefighting requirements in the Seafarers Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Convention and the fire safety implications of transporting (a) road vehicles and (b) appliances containing lithium-ion batteries by ship.
Answered by Keir Mather - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), continues to participate in International Maritime Organization (IMO) discussions on seafarer training and maritime fire safety.
The UK is also actively engaged in IMO work on the fire safety implications of transporting battery-electric vehicles by ship. Through the IMO Ship Systems and Equipment Sub-Committee, work is underway to develop fire safety measures for vehicle carriers and related detection and monitoring arrangements.
In relation to lithium-ion batteries and equipment containing such batteries carried as cargo, the UK participates in ongoing IMO discussions on amendments to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods (IMDG) Code, which sets the international requirements for the safe carriage of dangerous goods by sea.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the potential merits of the UK government advocating for a new United Nations Convention for the Protection of Journalists and Media Workers.
Answered by Chris Elmore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is committed to upholding media freedom and ensuring that journalists and other media workers are able to operate without fear, harassment or violence, wherever they are in the world. We are currently pursuing those goals through our role as co-chair of the Media Freedom Coalition, as set out in my written ministerial statement on 23 February (HCWS1342), but we will continue to keep other options for international coordination of these efforts under review.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average sentence length was for those convicted aged 16 to 25 at the time of sentencing for cases included in the CPS Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme 2024-25 by ethnicity and sex.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice publishes data on average sentence length for a variety of offences including murder and attempted murder in England and Wales. These data are available by ethnicity and sex in the Outcomes by Offences data tool, that can be downloaded from the Criminal Justice Statistics landing page here: Criminal Justice Statistics.
However, information on whether cases were included in the CPS Joint Enterprise National Monitoring Scheme is not held centrally in the Court Proceedings Database.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (1) mean and (2) median tariff length is for people receiving a life sentence aged 16 to 25 at the time of sentencing in each year since 2015 by ethnicity.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The following tables show the (1) mean and (2) median tariff lengths for people receiving a life sentence aged 16 to 25 at the time of sentencing, by ethnicity, in each year since 2015.
Table 1: Mean tariff at sentence for life sentences by ethnicity and year of sentence
ETHNICITY | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Asian or Asian British | 25 | 16 | 20 | 23 | 19 | 23 | 20 | 20 | 23 | 20 | 23 |
Black or Black British | 19 | 17 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 22 | 23 |
Mixed | 18 | 20 | 20 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 21 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
White | 17 | 18 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
Other ethnic group | [c] | 19 | [c] | [c] | [c] | N/A | [c] | [c] | 20 | 16 | 15 |
Unknown or Not stated | N/A | N/A | N/A | [c] | N/A | [c] | [c] | [c] | 22 | 17 | 25 |
Table 2: Median tariff at sentence for life sentences by ethnicity and year of sentence
ETHNICITY | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
Asian or Asian British | 25 | 16 | 18 | 22 | 18 | 22 | 19 | 20 | 24 | 19 | 21 |
Black or Black British | 17 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 20 | 21 | 21 |
Mixed | 18 | 19 | 20 | 16 | 18 | 18 | 20 | 19 | 18 | 20 | 20 |
White | 17 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 19 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 20 |
Other ethnic group | [c] | 18 | [c] | [c] | [c] | N/A | [c] | [c] | 16 | 17 | 14 |
Unknown or Not stated | N/A | N/A | N/A | [c] | N/A | [c] | [c] | [c] | 18 | 14 | 22 |
1. Tariff length is the time between date of sentencing and tariff expiry date and does not take into account any time served on remand.
2. ‘N/A’ entries include cases where a confirmed tariff expiry date has yet to be received, and any unmatched records.
3. Where necessary, [c] has been used to suppress values of one or two to prevent the disclosure of individual information. Further disclosure control may be completed where this alone is not sufficient. This could include the secondary suppression of zero values.
Data quality
The figures in these tables have been derived from administrative IT systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to mitigate the potential risk of industrial action by PCS resulting from her Department's restructuring.
Answered by Seema Malhotra
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is committed to becoming a more strategic, high performing and technology-enabled organisation, better equipped to deliver tangible benefits for the British people. The FCDO2030 reform programme is driving forward this transformation, ensuring the Department can deliver its purpose effectively in a rapidly changing world.
The programme is being implemented in a phased way to support continuity of delivery, minimise disruption and retain critical skills and expertise. Changes to workforce size and structure are being made strategically to ensure the right number of staff, with the right capabilities, are focused on the FCDO's highest priorities. Any redundancies will be made in line with Civil Service Compensation Scheme rules and the 2016 protocols.
The Department recognises the importance of staff morale, workforce pressures, and continuity of delivery throughout this process. Senior leaders continue to engage regularly with staff to provide clarity and support, and recognised Trade Unions have been consulted throughout the restructuring process. All decisions are made in line with the FCDO's legal and Public Sector Equality Duty obligations.
Ministers are kept informed of progress on the wider FCDO2030 programme, while implementation of organisational change is led by the Department. The FCDO will continue to update Parliament on significant developments relating to the programme, and information on workforce size and composition will continue to be published through the Department's official reporting mechanisms.