Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the (a) effectiveness and (b) enforcement of the current illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing import controls.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK Government is strongly committed to preventing seafood caught from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing from entering the UK supply chain. Defra works closely with the Devolved Governments, Marine Management Organisation and Port Health Authorities to manage the risk of illegally caught fish entering the UK. For example, the UK maintains a strict ban on seafood imports from countries that have been identified as non-cooperative in tackling IUU fishing as well as seafood caught by vessels included in the UK’s IUU vessel list identified as having engaged in IUU fishing. Controls are also in place to prevent foreign vessels accessing UK ports if suspected of engaging in IUU fishing. Furthermore, all wild-caught fish imported into the UK must be accompanied by validated catch certificates to ensure legality and traceability.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
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 adequacy of animal welfare enforcement in commercial pig farms; and what steps she is taking to ensure that audit and inspection processes lead to (a) timely investigation, (b) transparency and (c) meaningful sanctions where breaches are identified.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All farm animals are protected by comprehensive and robust animal health and welfare legislation, and potential breaches of the law are taken very seriously. We are actively working with enforcement authorities to reform the way they collect and publish data of on-farm enforcement activities and the actions they take to support compliance and act on non-compliance. We will also explore whether the current enforcement tools used by our enforcement bodies are effective, proportionate and transparent.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 23 September 2025 to Question 75965 on Food: Public Sector, what her Department's planned timetable is for reviewing food purchased by the public sector; and how her Department plans to report where food procured by the public sector originated.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is currently assessing what food the public sector buys and where it comes from. This will enable us to determine the extent to which public sector organisations are buying food from British producers, providing a baseline with which to measure progress.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to undertake regular assessments of the exposure of supply chains to Uyghur forced labour.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This Government stands firm on human rights, including the repression of Uyghurs, and continues to work with international partners to find ways of holding China to account.
The Government’s Overseas Business Risk guidance sets out the risks of operating in certain regions and urges companies to conduct appropriate due diligence, in line with the UN Guiding Principle on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct.
In the Trade Strategy, the Government launched a review into responsible business conduct. The review is considering how we can best tackle supply chain harms, such as forced labour. This includes consideration of measures to improve supply chain transparency and traceability.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost to the public purse was for the Independent Office for Police Conduct produce the Updated summary published for 2017 IOPC investigation linked to child sexual abuse in Rotherham.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
On 19 September 2025, following requests from complainants and other interested persons for further detail, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) published a further summary of the Operation Amazon investigation, which formed part of the series of investigations under Operation Linden.
The IOPC does not routinely publish the costs of individual investigations and reports. The Home Office holds no additional information.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on how much it cost for the Independent Office for Police Conduct to carry out the Operation Amazon investigation linked to child sexual abuse in Rotherham.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
I refer the Hon Member to letter sent to her from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regarding the costs for Operation Linden. A copy of the letter was placed in the House Library. As noted in that letter, “the total operations cost of the 91 investigations [which comprised Operation Linden], calculated until end March 2021 was estimated at just over £6 Million”. The Home Office holds no additional information.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on how much it cost for the Independent Office for Police Conduct to carry out the Operation Linden investigation linked to child sexual abuse in Rotherham.
Answered by Jess Phillips - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
I refer the Hon Member to letter sent to her from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regarding the costs for Operation Linden. A copy of the letter was placed in the House Library. As noted in that letter, “the total operations cost of the 91 investigations [which comprised Operation Linden], calculated until end March 2021 was estimated at just over £6 Million”. The Home Office holds no additional information.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to issue guidance to local authorities on the procurement of food that is locally produced or certified to higher environment standards.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra is responsible for the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services (GBSF), which set the requirements for sourcing, cooking, and serving of food for central Government and executive agencies in England. Local authorities are encouraged to comply with these where possible. Further, we have already published a new national procurement policy statement which sets expectations for Government contracts to favour products certified to high environmental standards that we think high-quality British producers are well-placed to meet.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what her planned timetable is for ensuring that half of all food purchased across the public sector is (a) locally produced and (b) certified to higher environment standards.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is open to considering all lawful means of achieving its ambition that half of all food purchased across the public sector should be locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards. As a first step, we will be reviewing the food currently purchased by the public sector and its provenance to help inform our future approach on public sector food procurement.
Asked by: Sarah Champion (Labour - Rotherham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will respond to the report of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights entitled The Next Wave: How Religious Extremism Is Regaining Power, published on 27 June 2025.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are aware of the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual & Reproductive Rights report entitled 'The Next Wave: How Religious Extremism Is Regaining Power', and the issues it raises in relation to the rollback on rights.
The UK has a long history as a well-respected and influential global leader on SRHR and in defending and championing these fundamental rights. The UK continues to work with likeminded Member States, NGOs, and Civil Society Organisations to defend, promote and support SRHR.