Asked by: Lee Anderson (Reform UK - Ashfield)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much their Department has spent on translating documents into languages other than (a) English and (b) other native UK languages in each year since 2023; and what these languages were.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice has a statutory duty to provide Language Services to enable access to justice for users for whom English is not their first language and those who require visual and tactile services, under the provision of the Equality Act.
Language Service needs and spend are assessed to ensure these services offer good value for money for taxpayers while maintaining high standards of service delivery.
In FY 23/24 the total contracted spend was £915,037.52.
In FY 24/25 the total contracted spend was £1,003,283.32.
In FY 25/26 so far, the total contracted spend is £256,707.82.
The languages in this data exclude written translations into English, Welsh and Braille.
The languages translated into from English (United Kingdom) are:
Albanian (Albania)
Amharic (Ethiopia)
Arabic (Classical)
Arabic (Egypt)
Arabic (Modern Standard) Middle Eastern
Arabic (Modern Standard) North African
Arabic (Morocco)
Armenian (Armenia)
Bangla (Bangladesh)
Bosnian (Latin, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Bulgarian (Bulgaria)
Burmese
Burmese (Myanmar)
Catalan (Catalan)
Chinese (Simplified)
Chinese (Traditional)
Croatian (Latin, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Czech (Czech Republic)
Danish (Denmark)
Dari (Afghanistan)
Dutch (Netherlands)
Estonian (Estonia)
Filipino (Philippines)
Finnish (Finland)
French (Belgium)
French (France)
Georgian (Georgia)
German (Austria)
German (Germany)
Greek (Greece)
Gujarati (India)
Hebrew (Israel)
Hindi (India)
Hungarian (Hungary)
Icelandic (Iceland)
Indonesian (Indonesia)
Italian (Italy)
Japanese (Japan)
Kinyarwanda (Rwanda)
Kiswahili (Kenya)
Korean (Korea)
Kurdish (Bahdini)
Kurdish (Sorani)
Latvian (Latvia)
Lingala (Congo DRC)
Lithuanian (Lithuania)
Macedonian (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia)
Malay (Malaysia)
Malayalam (India)
Maltese (Malta)
Mirpuri (Central Asia)
Mongolian (Cyrillic, Mongolia)
Nepali (Nepal)
Norwegian, Bokmål (Norway)
Norwegian, Nynorsk (Norway)
Oromo (Ethiopia)
PahariPotwari (Central Asia)
Pashto (Afghanistan)
Persian (Afghanistan)
Persian (Iran)
Polish (Poland)
Portuguese (Brazil)
Portuguese (Portugal)
Punjabi (India)
Punjabi (Pakistan)
Romanian (Romania)
Romany (Europe)
Russian (Russia)
Serbian (Cyrillic, Serbia)
Serbian (Latin, Serbia)
Shona (Latin, Zimbabwe)
Sinhala (Sri Lanka)
Slovak (Slovakia)
Slovenian (Slovenia)
Somali (Somalia)
Spanish (Argentina)
Spanish (Latin America)
Spanish (Mexico)
Spanish (Spain)
Swedish (Sweden)
Tajik (Cyrillic, Tajikistan)
Tamazight (Latin, Algeria)
Tamil (India)
Tetum (Timor)
Thai (Thailand)
Tigrinya (Eritrea)
Turkish (Turkey)
Ukranian (Ukraine)
Urdu (Islamic Republic of Pakistan)
Uzbek (Latin, Uzbekistan)
Vietnamese (Vietnam)
Wolof (Senegal)
Yoruba (Nigeria)
The Languages translated into from English (United States) are:
Arabic (Egypt)
Hungarian (Hungary)
Polish (Poland)
Romanian (Romania)
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff in her Department have permission to work remotely outside the UK; and in which countries those staff are based.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice uses the term international remote working (IRW) to describe working remotely outside the UK. IRW is defined as when an employee wants to undertake the full responsibilities of their role remotely from abroad, for a short-term and fixed period. Employees may request to work their full responsibilities from abroad in exceptional circumstances e.g. supporting a family member overseas who needs urgent and immediate help, for a maximum of 30 calendar days in a rolling 12-month period.
On 3 July 2025, the Ministry of Justice had 11 employees who had permission to work remotely outside the UK. These are for the following countries:
Asked by: Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the announcement by Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia that they intend to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel mines; and whether they intend to consider withdrawal as well.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
His Majesty’s Government (HMG) has noted that Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have stated their intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention. The UK acknowledges and shares concerns about the security environment in the region as a result of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. We also acknowledge that it is the sovereign right of those countries to make this decision. The UK will work to mitigate impacts on vital arms control and disarmament norms, while continuing to engage bilaterally on the actions States plan to take.
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (also known as the Ottawa Convention) continues to play an important role in protecting civilians from harm caused by anti-personnel landmines. As a State Party to the Ottawa Convention, the UK’s commitment to it remains unwavering. We continue to encourage countries to join the Ottawa Convention, subscribe to its provisions; and discourage States from using anti-personnel landmines.
HMG continues to publicly express its commitment to the Ottawa Convention, most recently by Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Baroness Chapman, at a House of Lords debate on Landmines and Cluster Munitions on 3 April 2025 (Official Report vol 845, column 425).
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when he expects the Trade Remedies Authority to report the results of its investigation into imports of lubricant and engine oil from Lithuania and the United Arab Emirates.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) initiated an investigation into the alleged dumping of engine oils and hydraulic fluids from the UAE and Lithuania on 17 June 2024.
Whilst this investigation remains an ongoing process I cannot comment further as doing so may prejudice the investigation. The TRA will publish its provisional affirmative determination on the public file according to the timeline published on the cases public file.
All importers of oil products into the UK must be able to provide evidence to demonstrate that goods are not of Russian origin. In line with WTO rules of origin, Russian oil which has been substantially processed in a third country is no longer considered to be of Russian origin. However, activities such as processing oil products solely to mask their Russian origin are prohibited under UK law.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the impact for his policies of the dumping of imported products from the UAE in the (a) lubricant and (b) engine oil market.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) initiated an investigation into the alleged dumping of engine oils and hydraulic fluids from the UAE and Lithuania on 17 June 2024.
Whilst this investigation remains an ongoing process I cannot comment further as doing so may prejudice the investigation. The TRA will publish its provisional affirmative determination on the public file according to the timeline published on the cases public file.
All importers of oil products into the UK must be able to provide evidence to demonstrate that goods are not of Russian origin. In line with WTO rules of origin, Russian oil which has been substantially processed in a third country is no longer considered to be of Russian origin. However, activities such as processing oil products solely to mask their Russian origin are prohibited under UK law.
Asked by: Natalie Fleet (Labour - Bolsover)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to help ensure that sanctioned Russian (a) oil and (b) oil products are not being sold in the UK lubricant and engine oil market.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) initiated an investigation into the alleged dumping of engine oils and hydraulic fluids from the UAE and Lithuania on 17 June 2024.
Whilst this investigation remains an ongoing process I cannot comment further as doing so may prejudice the investigation. The TRA will publish its provisional affirmative determination on the public file according to the timeline published on the cases public file.
All importers of oil products into the UK must be able to provide evidence to demonstrate that goods are not of Russian origin. In line with WTO rules of origin, Russian oil which has been substantially processed in a third country is no longer considered to be of Russian origin. However, activities such as processing oil products solely to mask their Russian origin are prohibited under UK law.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evaluation they have made of the ongoing utility of the Anti-Personnel Landmines Convention following recent developments in Eastern and Northern Europe.
Answered by Lord Coaker - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction (also known as the Ottawa Convention) continues to play an important role in protecting civilians from harm caused by anti-personnel landmines. As a State Party to the Ottawa Convention, the UK’s commitment to it remains unwavering. We continue to encourage countries to join the Ottawa Convention, subscribe to its provisions; and discourage States from using anti-personnel landmines.
His Majesty's Government has noted that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have stated their intention to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty. The UK acknowledges and shares concerns about the security environment in the region as a result of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. We also acknowledge that it is the sovereign right of those countries to make this decision. The UK will work to mitigate impacts on vital arms control and disarmament norms, while continuing to engage bilaterally on the actions States plan to take.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the UK's commitment to enhanced NATO air policing patrols.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The UK remains fully committed to NATO air policing. The RAF has deployed to Poland, Estonia, Iceland, Lithuania and Romania, securing Allied airspace and playing a key role in NATO’s deterrence and defence.
Along with other European Allies, the UK provides our P8 maritime reconnaissance aircraft and Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft to NATO’s BALTIC SENTRY maritime operation throughout the Baltic Sea. The objective of this to detect and understand sabotage against undersea infrastructure, as well play a critical part in deterrence.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many British service personnel are deployed to (a) Estonia, (b) Latvia, (c) Lithuania and (d) Poland as part of the UK contribution to the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As part of the UK contribution to the NATO Enhanced Forward presence, circa 1,300 British Service personnel are deployed to Estonia and circa 100 to Poland. The UK does not contribute forces to Latvia or Lithuania within the context of NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence.
Asked by: Linsey Farnsworth (Labour - Amber Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has had discussions with his EU counterparts on streamlining the import process for flowers.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
Plant health import requirements are kept under continuous review, through the UK Plant Health Risk Group. Following such a review, most imports of cut flowers into GB from the EU no longer require an accompanying phytosanitary certificate and notification by importers.
Where phytosanitary certificates are still required, we are transitioning to digital certification via the IPPC ePhyto solution, which is a faster, safer and more cost-effective option. Defra has prioritised securing ePhyto agreements with EU countries, with arrangements now agreed for a range of plant products, including cut flowers, from: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden. Several other EU countries are due to have the capacity to export using ePhyto rolled out during 2025.
The Trade Specialised Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) measures, set up under the UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, provides a platform for information sharing and discussion on each of the Parties’ import requirements and processes. It is at this forum that the UK has discussed with the European Union the development of the UK’s IPPC ePhyto solution.
Defra is also seeking to negotiate a SPS agreement to help boost trade and deliver benefits to businesses and consumers in the UK and the EU.
The UK and EU are like-minded partners with similarly high standards. We have been clear that a SPS agreement could boost trade and deliver significant benefits on both sides. A SPS agreement could reduce trade friction and deliver significant benefits to the EU and the UK, but delivering new agreements will take time.