Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to adjournment debate of Tuesday 11 November 2025 entitled Blood Transfusions during the Falklands War, what plans his Department has to investigate Argentine blood transfusions to British service personnel aboard SS Uganda during the Falklands war.
Answered by Louise Sandher-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
As I wrote to my hon. Friend on 18 December 2026, the Department will review the evidence he has presented in the coming months. Having conducted a search, we determined the Ministry of Defence (MOD) does not hold information relating to Argentine blood transfusions to British Service personnel aboard SS Uganda during the Falklands war. However, the Surgeon General for the Armed Forces is further investigating this matter.
I encourage individuals who believe they may have received infected blood in the course of Armed Forces treatment overseas, including veterans of the Falklands War, to contact the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA).
As with all cases, evidence will be assessed on the balance of probabilities, meaning the IBCA will need to be satisfied that it is more likely than not that the person got their infection from blood or a blood product as opposed to another route.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions he has had with his international counterparts on trade deals.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Secretary of State met his Indian counterpart, Minister Goyal, in Mumbai as part of the recent trade mission led by the Prime Minister, and had productive discussions on our joint ambition to bring the UK-India free trade agreement (FTA) into force as soon as possible.
I held meetings with German, Emerati, Saudi, Greek and Indian counterparts at the Berlin Global Dialogue and attended the GCC Trade Ministers Meeting in Kuwait in October, reaffirming shared, strong political will to conclude a UK-GCC trade deal.
I visited Argentina and Brazil and discussed how best to strengthen our trading relationship with a series of ministerial counterparts, including potentially through an FTA. I have also held meetings with my Uruguayan, Paraguayan, and Ukrainian counterparts online.
There have been further ministerial-level discussions with counterparts in the US, EU, Switzerland, Republic of Korea, and Turkey.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support (a) small and (b) independent distillers wishing to export.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
DBT negotiates new free trade agreements, such as the UK-India FTA, and seeks to remove market access barriers for UK distillers. We recently agreed a Geographic Indicator for Scotch Whisky in Argentina. DBT provides direct export support via business.gov.uk, including access to the Business Academy and international market teams. This November, DBT will lead a landmark Spirits trade mission to New Delhi and Mumbai, offering UK distillers a strategic gateway into India’s fast-growing alcoholic drinks market. Distillers of all sizes can access UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK’s export credit agency, which offers a wide range of products to support exporters and export-ready businesses.
Asked by: Shivani Raja (Conservative - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what his policy is on seeking a UK-Mercosur free trade agreement.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Mercosur countries are important partners for the UK and I am personally committed to strengthening our bilateral trading relationships to remove barriers to trade and help grow UK exports. I recently visited Brazil, where I signed agreements on customs, regulatory reform and export credit and pushed Brazil to complete the Double Taxation Agreement; and Argentina to further UK interests on whisky, financial services and air services.
The UK is not currently negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur. Any decision to seek to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement with Mercosur would be communicated to the House in the usual way.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has had recent discussions with his Canadian counterpart on a potential trade deal with Argentina.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Secretary of State for Scotland
The Business and Trade Secretary had a warm introductory conversation with his Canadian counterpart Minister Sidhu at the G7, where they discussed the bilateral trading relationship and agreed to work together on deepening and growing the bilateral trading relationship further. They did not discuss a trade deal with Argentina.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many staff in his Department have permission to work remotely outside the UK; and in which countries those staff are based.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department approves temporary international remote working for staff to work remotely overseas for short defined periods of time where there is critical business need or unforeseen personal circumstances that require immediate attention outside of the United Kingdom. The Department approved 73 cases of international remote working for Department staff between 4 July 2024 and 4 July 2025. The destinations that we have approved for international remote working cases are as follows Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Jamaica, Jordan, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and USA. The Department has no approved permanent postings outside of the UK.
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: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2025 to Question 25786 on Argentina: Foreign Relations, whether he discussed the future of the Falkland Islands in those conversations.
Answered by Catherine West
The Foreign Secretary reiterated the UK's longstanding position on Falkland Islands sovereignty. While the UK recognises that a constructive relationship with Argentina is in our shared best interests, our commitment to defending the Falkland Islanders' right of self-determination will not waiver. Only the Falkland Islanders can and should decide their own future.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of reactor-produced radioisotopes used for treatment of cancer in the UK are provided from (1) the European Union, (2) Australia, (3) Argentina, and (4) the rest of the world.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Medical radioisotopes can be produced in different ways and the cyclotrons used in the United Kingdom produce a small supply of medical radioisotopes, mainly for diagnostic use. This is because the cyclotrons used in the UK supply relatively low-level radioactive material which is best suited for imaging and diagnosis. For therapeutics, particle emitting radioisotopes tend to be used. For UK use, these are mainly manufactured in research reactors, and there are currently no reactors in the UK that manufacture these isotopes. Research reactors can also supply medical radioisotopes for imaging and diagnosis.
Medical radioisotopes are purchased from suppliers on trust and hospital levels, and the Department has not made a systematic review of the origin country for these products.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking with (a) state and (b) private sector allies and partners to reduce the risk to the UK's (i) national and (ii) economic security of Russia’s development of nuclear anti-satellite weapons.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK takes the potential development of nuclear anti-satellite weapons by Russia seriously. We have been working with international partners and allies to reaffirm the absolute prohibition of the placement of weapons of mass destruction in space, including:
- Supporting a UN Security Council Resolution tabled by US and Japan calling on States not to develop, station or place in orbit any weapons of mass destruction in line with the Outer Space Treaty.
- Co-sponsoring a UN General Assembly Resolution submitted by US, Japan and Argentina reiterating Article IV of the Outer Space treaty, which prohibits the stationing of any Weapons of Mass Destruction in orbit around the Earth.
- Raising our concern of the threat such irresponsible actions pose to all countries by highlighting the devastating impact of nuclear weapons in space in bilateral engagements and statements made at the United Nations General Assembly, United Nations Security Council, UN Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Washington Summit.