Asked by: Sarah Edwards (Labour - Tamworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 on Northern Ireland.
Answered by Matthew Patrick - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Northern Ireland Office)
The defence of the United Kingdom is always the first duty of any Government.
As part of our defence industrial strategy, we will invest £250m across five regions for Defence Growth Deals - including one in Northern Ireland which already boasts a booming defence sector - and it looks like it will only get stronger in 2026.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Defence Industrial Strategy 2025 on Northern Ireland.
Answered by Matthew Patrick - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Northern Ireland Office)
The defence of the United Kingdom is always the first duty of any Government.
As part of our defence industrial strategy, we will invest £250m across five regions for Defence Growth Deals - including one in Northern Ireland which already boasts a booming defence sector - and it looks like it will only get stronger in 2026.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many and what proportion of civil servants in his Department are (a) on temporary contract and (b) consultants.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Information on the number of civil servants employed on temporary contracts is published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics as part of the quarterly Public Sector Employment statistics. Information can be accessed for September 2025 at the following:
Departmental expenditure on consultancy is published within the Annual Report and Accounts. The latest report for FY 2024/25 can be found at the following web address:
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many full-time equivalent staff in his Department have been employed for the purpose of making social media content in each of the past three years.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Due to the difficulty of disaggregating the number of staff who are employed to produce social media content from staff who are employed to work on broader digital communications, it is not possible to report exact figures in response to this question.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment has he made of the potential implications for his policies of the conclusions of the report by the Windsor Framework Independent Monitoring Panel, published on 5 December 2025, on Business friendly guidance on gov.uk.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Government considered the issues raised in the Independent Monitoring Panel’s report as part of its response to the Independent Review of the Windsor Framework. This includes a commitment to delivering an enhanced ‘one stop shop’ advice service for small businesses, beyond what is available on GOV.UK, and this is set out at Paragraph 50 of the Government’s response and thereafter. The Government’s response to the Review, and relevant issues raised in the Panel’s report, is available at:
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what progress has been made in discussions with the United States administration regarding the initiative outlined in the Windsor Framework and Safeguarding the Union document to establish a US Customs and Border Protection pre-clearance facility at Belfast International Airport; and what the anticipated timeline for such negotiations would be.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
As part of commitments within the Windsor Framework and the Safeguarding the Union Command Paper, the then-Government committed to “enter into exploratory talks with the United States Administration on the options for introducing pre-clearance checks on customs and immigration for passengers travelling on direct flights from Belfast International Airport and destinations in the USA.”
I can confirm that this was raised with the US Administration, but the decision ultimately rests them.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what proportion of (a) named day questions and (b) ordinary written questions were responded to by her Department within the required timescale in (i) May 2025, (ii) June 2025, (iii) July 2025, (iv) August 2025, (v) September 2025, (vi) October 2025 and (vii) November 2025.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The information requested is shown below:
| Ordinary Written PQs | Named Day PQs |
May 2025 | 100% | 100% |
June 2025 | 100% | 100% |
July 2025 | 100% | 100% |
August 2025 | Nil | Nil |
September 2025 | 100% | 100% |
October 2025 | 100% | 100% |
November 2025 | 100% | 100% |
The House of Commons Procedure Committee monitors departmental PQ performance and publishes a report of the government’s consolidated PQ data following the end of each session.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Connect Fund reaches communities that have previously had lower application rates for grant funding across Northern Ireland.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The £1m Connect Fund makes awards to strengthen civic ties between Northern Ireland and Great Britain across a range of sectors. I am encouraged by the high level of interest the Fund has received from community and voluntary groups to date. Early next year, a series of roadshows will be hosted across Northern Ireland, including areas with lower application rates, to advertise the Fund and support a broad geographical spread of applicants.
Asked by: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of negotiating a UK-EU Customs Union deal for improving trade between (a) Northern Ireland and (b) Great Britain.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is part of the UK’s customs territory and benefits from the UK’s Free Trade Agreements. The Government is not seeking to negotiate a UK-EU Customs Union.
Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many of the European Union acts which have been added to the relevant Annexes of the Windsor Framework since the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement came into force have been (1) acts which were capable of having the Stormont Brake applied, and (2) acts to which the Stormont Brake was actually applied.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
New EU legislation can only be added to the Windsor Framework by means of Joint Decisions by the UK and EU at the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee, and in line with the UK Government’s commitments in Schedule 6B to the Northern Ireland Act 1998. A record of those decisions can be found online on the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee page of the Government’s website. Since the Windsor Framework was agreed in 2023, 9 new EU acts have been added to its annexes - with 4 added in 2023, 1 in 2024, and 4 in 2025.
The scope of the Stormont Brake is also clearly set out in Schedule 6B to the Northern Ireland Act 1998. The Stormont Brake mechanism is provided for in relation to relevant EU replacement legislation, and any notification under it would be required to satisfy the requirements set down in law.