About python : APT-returns-error-asking-me-to-set-a-variable-that-already-exists

Anytime I run an APT command (for example sudo apt update) it fetches a couple repositories, and then returns a python error like follows:

Could not find platform independent libraries <prefix>
Consider setting $PYTHONHOME to <prefix>[:<exec_prefix>]
Python path configuration:
  PYTHONHOME = (not set)
  PYTHONPATH = (not set)
  program name = '/usr/bin/python3'
  isolated = 0
  environment = 1
  user site = 1
  import site = 1
  sys._base_executable = '/usr/bin/python3'
  sys.base_prefix = '/usr/local'
  sys.base_exec_prefix = '/usr'
  sys.platlibdir = 'lib'
  sys.executable = '/usr/bin/python3'
  sys.prefix = '/usr/local'
  sys.exec_prefix = '/usr'
  sys.path = [
    '/usr/local/lib/python310.zip',
    '/usr/local/lib/python3.10',
    '/usr/lib/python3.10/lib-dynload',
  ]
Fatal Python error: init_fs_encoding: failed to get the Python codec of the filesystem encoding
Python runtime state: core initialized
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'encodings'

Current thread 0x00007fcb30a512c0 (most recent call first):
  <no Python frame>
Reading package lists... Done
E: Problem executing scripts APT::Update::Post-Invoke-Success 'if /usr/bin/test -w /var/lib/command-not-found/ -a -e /usr/lib/cnf-update-db; then /usr/lib/cnf-update-db > /dev/null; fi'
E: Sub-process returned an error code

I have set the $PYTHONHOME and $PYTHONPATH variables to my python install. So what is the problem here?