Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 make it her policy to ring fence fencing funding previously allocated to the Darwin Plus programme for environmental protection projects in the UK Overseas Territories.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s Darwin Plus programme has invested more than £64 million across nearly 400 environmental projects of benefit to the UK Overseas Territories since 2012. These include projects to increase the Territories’ resilience by responding to, mitigating and adapting to climate change and its effects on the natural environment and local communities.
An independent evaluation in 2022 found that Darwin Plus projects have reduced key threats to the Territories’ natural environments, including climate change. An impact analysis of Darwin Plus projects in 2025 has since estimated that Darwin Plus projects have:
Project applicants for Darwin Plus Local Round 6, which closed on 29 December, will be kept informed of developments. Updates on further future funding rounds will be published on the Darwin Plus website in due course.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 role of Darwin Plus in supporting climate resilience and reducing future environmental risks in the UK Overseas Territories.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s Darwin Plus programme has invested more than £64 million across nearly 400 environmental projects of benefit to the UK Overseas Territories since 2012. These include projects to increase the Territories’ resilience by responding to, mitigating and adapting to climate change and its effects on the natural environment and local communities.
An independent evaluation in 2022 found that Darwin Plus projects have reduced key threats to the Territories’ natural environments, including climate change. An impact analysis of Darwin Plus projects in 2025 has since estimated that Darwin Plus projects have:
Project applicants for Darwin Plus Local Round 6, which closed on 29 December, will be kept informed of developments. Updates on further future funding rounds will be published on the Darwin Plus website in due course.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
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 implications for environmental outcomes in the UK Overseas Territories of any interruption to the Darwin Plus programme.
Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s Darwin Plus programme has invested more than £64 million across nearly 400 environmental projects of benefit to the UK Overseas Territories since 2012. These include projects to increase the Territories’ resilience by responding to, mitigating and adapting to climate change and its effects on the natural environment and local communities.
An independent evaluation in 2022 found that Darwin Plus projects have reduced key threats to the Territories’ natural environments, including climate change. An impact analysis of Darwin Plus projects in 2025 has since estimated that Darwin Plus projects have:
Project applicants for Darwin Plus Local Round 6, which closed on 29 December, will be kept informed of developments. Updates on further future funding rounds will be published on the Darwin Plus website in due course.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, what information his Department holds on the number of people that have been prosecuted for honour-based offences broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) category of offence in each year since 2010.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The CPS define ‘honour’ based abuse as an incident or crime involving violence, threats of violence, intimidation coercion or abuse (including psychological, physical, sexual, financial, or emotional abuse) which has or may have been committed to protect or defend the honour of an individual, family and/ or community for alleged or perceived breaches of the family and/or community's code of behaviour. These data are accurate only to the extent that the flag is accurately applied.
Management information is available from 2010 which shows the number of prosecuted defendants flagged with the so-called honour-based abuse monitoring flag. The number of prosecuted defendants last year were at their highest level for seven years.
Table 1 (below) shows this information from 1st April 2010 to 30th September 2025, and Table 2 provides the same information by the Principal Offence Category allocated to the defendant at the conclusion of the prosecution proceeding.
Table 1 – Prosecuted defendants charged with ‘honour’ based abuse monitoring flag
| 2010- 2011 | 2011- 2012 | 2012- 2013 | 2013- 2014 | 2014- 2015 | 2015- 2016 | 2016- 2017 | 2017- 2018 | 2018- 2019 | 2019- 2020 | 2020-2021 | 2021- 2022 | 2022- 2023 | 2023- 2024 | 2024- 2025 |
Prosecutions | 234 | 172 | 200 | 206 | 225 | 182 | 171 | 127 | 72 | 61 | 53 | 76 | 68 | 80 | 95 |
Table 2 – Prosecuted defendants by principal offence category and flagged with the ‘honour’ based abuse monitoring flag
| 2010- 2011 | 2011- 2012 | 2012- 2013 | 2013- 2014 | 2014- 2015 | 2015- 2016 | 2016- 2017 | 2017- 2018 | 2018- 2019 | 2019- 2020 | 2020- 2021 | 2021- 2022 | 2022- 2023 | 2023- 2024 | 2024- 2025 |
A Homicide | 13 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
B Offences Against the Person | 152 | 119 | 121 | 154 | 183 | 143 | 146 | 93 | 64 | 45 | 45 | 58 | 61 | 65 | 84 |
C Sexual Offences | 9 | 7 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 4 |
D Burglary | 6 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
E Robbery | 9 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
F Theft and Handling | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
G Fraud and Forgery | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
H Criminal Damage | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
I Drugs Offences | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
J Public Order Offences | 13 | 14 | 15 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
K All Other Offences (excluding Motoring) | 15 | 14 | 14 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
L Motoring Offences | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Other (Not specified) | 8 | 9 | 14 | 4 | 8 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Data source: CPS Case Management Information System
The CPS collects data to assist in the effective management of its prosecution functions through its Case Management System (CMS). The CPS does not collect data that constitutes official statistics as defined in the Statistics and Registration Act 2007.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to help ensure regulatory co-operation with China does not impact on UK standards in financial supervision.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The agreements reached at the first UK‑China Financial Working Group in Beijing will strengthen cooperation with China in ways that support the UK’s position as an open, competitive and well‑regulated international financial centre, supporting jobs and growth in the UK.
As set out in HM Treasury’s press release and the joint readout of the first UK-China Financial Working Group meeting (FWG), the FWG provides a new formal mechanism for structured, substantive and technical dialogue between UK and Chinese financial authorities on issues including financial stability and resilience, capital markets, market development and sustainable finance.
Specific outcomes include the designation of Bank of China’s London Branch as the UK’s second renminbi (RMB) clearing bank, which will broaden the range of services available to UK businesses trading with China and strengthen London’s role as a leading international financial centre. Technical discussions were also held on long-term initiatives to support the UK’s capital markets, as well as green finance and asset management sectors. Alongside the FWG and the Prime Minister’s visit, the UK and China also agreed to pursue new cooperation on innovative financing, such as RMB-denominated sovereign biodiversity bond issuances, cementing the City's role as the global hub for green finance.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she has taken to ensure UK firms are impacted the designation of the Bank of China’s London Branch as the UK’s second renminbi clearing bank.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The agreements reached at the first UK‑China Financial Working Group in Beijing will strengthen cooperation with China in ways that support the UK’s position as an open, competitive and well‑regulated international financial centre, supporting jobs and growth in the UK.
As set out in HM Treasury’s press release and the joint readout of the first UK-China Financial Working Group meeting (FWG), the FWG provides a new formal mechanism for structured, substantive and technical dialogue between UK and Chinese financial authorities on issues including financial stability and resilience, capital markets, market development and sustainable finance.
Specific outcomes include the designation of Bank of China’s London Branch as the UK’s second renminbi (RMB) clearing bank, which will broaden the range of services available to UK businesses trading with China and strengthen London’s role as a leading international financial centre. Technical discussions were also held on long-term initiatives to support the UK’s capital markets, as well as green finance and asset management sectors. Alongside the FWG and the Prime Minister’s visit, the UK and China also agreed to pursue new cooperation on innovative financing, such as RMB-denominated sovereign biodiversity bond issuances, cementing the City's role as the global hub for green finance.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what mechanisms she will use to monitor the implementation of agreements reached on innovative biodiversity financing with China.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The agreements reached at the first UK‑China Financial Working Group in Beijing will strengthen cooperation with China in ways that support the UK’s position as an open, competitive and well‑regulated international financial centre, supporting jobs and growth in the UK.
As set out in HM Treasury’s press release and the joint readout of the first UK-China Financial Working Group meeting (FWG), the FWG provides a new formal mechanism for structured, substantive and technical dialogue between UK and Chinese financial authorities on issues including financial stability and resilience, capital markets, market development and sustainable finance.
Specific outcomes include the designation of Bank of China’s London Branch as the UK’s second renminbi (RMB) clearing bank, which will broaden the range of services available to UK businesses trading with China and strengthen London’s role as a leading international financial centre. Technical discussions were also held on long-term initiatives to support the UK’s capital markets, as well as green finance and asset management sectors. Alongside the FWG and the Prime Minister’s visit, the UK and China also agreed to pursue new cooperation on innovative financing, such as RMB-denominated sovereign biodiversity bond issuances, cementing the City's role as the global hub for green finance.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the outcomes of the UK-China Financial Working Group on UK-China trade flows.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The agreements reached at the first UK‑China Financial Working Group in Beijing will strengthen cooperation with China in ways that support the UK’s position as an open, competitive and well‑regulated international financial centre, supporting jobs and growth in the UK.
As set out in HM Treasury’s press release and the joint readout of the first UK-China Financial Working Group meeting (FWG), the FWG provides a new formal mechanism for structured, substantive and technical dialogue between UK and Chinese financial authorities on issues including financial stability and resilience, capital markets, market development and sustainable finance.
Specific outcomes include the designation of Bank of China’s London Branch as the UK’s second renminbi (RMB) clearing bank, which will broaden the range of services available to UK businesses trading with China and strengthen London’s role as a leading international financial centre. Technical discussions were also held on long-term initiatives to support the UK’s capital markets, as well as green finance and asset management sectors. Alongside the FWG and the Prime Minister’s visit, the UK and China also agreed to pursue new cooperation on innovative financing, such as RMB-denominated sovereign biodiversity bond issuances, cementing the City's role as the global hub for green finance.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the agreements from the first UK-China Financial Working Group in Beijing on UK financial services.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The agreements reached at the first UK‑China Financial Working Group in Beijing will strengthen cooperation with China in ways that support the UK’s position as an open, competitive and well‑regulated international financial centre, supporting jobs and growth in the UK.
As set out in HM Treasury’s press release and the joint readout of the first UK-China Financial Working Group meeting (FWG), the FWG provides a new formal mechanism for structured, substantive and technical dialogue between UK and Chinese financial authorities on issues including financial stability and resilience, capital markets, market development and sustainable finance.
Specific outcomes include the designation of Bank of China’s London Branch as the UK’s second renminbi (RMB) clearing bank, which will broaden the range of services available to UK businesses trading with China and strengthen London’s role as a leading international financial centre. Technical discussions were also held on long-term initiatives to support the UK’s capital markets, as well as green finance and asset management sectors. Alongside the FWG and the Prime Minister’s visit, the UK and China also agreed to pursue new cooperation on innovative financing, such as RMB-denominated sovereign biodiversity bond issuances, cementing the City's role as the global hub for green finance.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Solicitor General, how many prosecutions for human trafficking or sexual exploitation offences in each of the last three calendar years involved two or more defendants charged as part of the same case.
Answered by Ellie Reeves - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) holds management information which shows the number of prosecuted defendants flagged with the modern slavery (human trafficking) monitoring flag where 2 or more defendants have been prosecuted on the same case. The data is derived using a manual process as the CPS Case Management Information System does not report this information. As with any manual exercise, the data may be subject to errors in processing and the information is for operational use only.
The table below shows the flagged prosecution data (where 2 or more defendants have been prosecuted on the same cases) for the last three calendar years ending 31st December 2024.
Prosecuted defendants flagged with the modern slavery monitoring flag | |||
2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
Modern slavery flagged defendants with a completed prosecution outcome on cases with 2 or more defendants | 281 | 263 | 314 |
Data Source: CPS Case Management Information System | |||
The CPS define modern slavery as the following – for offences committed prior to 31st July 2015 ss57-59A Sexual Offences Act 2003, s4 Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004, s71 Coroners and Justice 2009 and for offences committed after the Modern Slavery Act 2015 came into force on the 31st July 2015, s1, 2 and 4 of the Act. Included in the definition are the inchoate versions of the listed offences.