Brexit news – live: Minister admits ‘devastating blow’ to shellfish trade but says EU action ‘indefensible’

Travellers face a jail sentence of up to 10 years if they try to hide a trip to a 'red zone' country, Matt Hancock has just told MPs.

"The new measures build on the tough action that we've already taken," he said as he updated the Commons on the government's coronavirus strategy.

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Brussels' decision to place barriers on live UK shellfish exports is "indefensible", the Environment Secretary has said.

Mr Eustice said the Commission changed its position last week, and that prior to that "they had been clear that this was a trade that could continue".

He said in an interview with LBC that the action, which puts a "ban on the trade altogether" was "quite unexpected and really indefensible".

The Home Office has admitted that more than 15,000 were accidentally deleted from the Police National Computer earlier this year.

Policing minister Kit Malthouse said in a written statement that a total of 209,550 offence records relating to 112,697 individuals had been deleted in error, 15,089 of them had their entire records wiped.

The government says the error may not lead to a permanent data loss as duplicate records may still be available on other systems.

Our policy correspondent Jon Stone has more on this:

The Cornish fishing industry will rename two of its most common catches in a bid to make them more appetising to British buyers, following the trade disruption caused by Brexit.

Megrim fish and spider crab, which both used to be sold en masse to the Spanish market, will be rebranded as "Cornish sole" and "Cornish king crab".

Adam Forrest has the story:

A YouGov poll has found that 47 per cent of Britons believe the opening of a coal mine in Cumbria will negatively impact the UK, with only 9 per cent in favour of the scheme.

The government has so far refused to override the plan, which has been approved by Cumbria County Council.

Phil MacDonald, an analyst at the clean energy think-tank Ember, told The Independent: "The UK can't meet its climate targets if we keep allowing coal mining – and it sends a terrible signal to the rest of the world just as we are hosting the climate conference in Glasgow."

Here's Jon Stone with more details:

An investigation has been launched after it emerged that a government agency spent thousands of pounds on high-end chocolates.

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has started a probe into the purchase of £6,248-worth of items from Hotel Chocolat, a top confectionary outlet.

The ICO could seek "reimbursement" from anyone found to have breached its spending policies.

The UK government has been strongly condemned for using "shameful" procedural tactics to deny a vote aimed at preventing trade deals with countries committing genocide.

This comes after barristers at Essex Court Chambers said there was a "very credible case" that China was committing genocide against the Uighurs.

In response to the government's actions, a Uighur exile said she was "sickened" by its "shameful" tactics.

Benedict Rogers, the chief executive of Hong Kong Watch, shares this view, saying: “I have never seen a government so afraid to do the right thing.”

Deputy political editor Rob Merrick reports:

The government has defended its decision not to close the UK's borders, amid criticism from Labour and some scientists who believe ministers are not doing enough to protect the country against new coronavirus variants.

Speaking on Monday, SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes spoke out against the government's lack of action.

"I'm sure I'm not the only person on these islands who's been left to wonder why the party which has spent so much of the last five years talking about taking back control of borders seemingly completely fluffed the opportunity to do so when there would have been almost unanimous support in the House," he said.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace has said that a breakdown in the international order has lead to an increased possibility of chemical or biological attacks around the world.

Speaking to The Times, he said: "Globally, I think there is a growing threat of chemical or biological (attack)."

"It is unfortunately what happens in a sort of breakdown of world order where you see countries like Syria use it on its own people," he added.

Here's our policy correspondent Jon Stone with more details:

Environment secretary George Eustice has reiterated his claim that the EU's ban on live shellfish imports from the UK has no legal basis.

His comment comes after the EU said the ban, which the British government hoped would be lifted in the spring, will continue after April.

On Monday, the environment secretary called the ban "devastating" for UK shellfish exporters.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday, Mr Eustice said: "The truth is there is no legal barrier to this trade continuing, both on animal health grounds and on public health grounds - there is legal provision within existing EU regulations to allow such trade to continue from the UK".

He accused the EU of changing its position "just last week", saying that before this "they had been clear that this was a trade that could continue".