Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has held recent discussions with the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums on alternative feed sources for captive birds of prey and reptiles.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra officials routinely meet the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums and a range of subjects are discussed.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much public funding has been provided to InterTradeIreland in each financial year since 2020; from which departmental budget that funding has been allocated; and what the stated purpose of that funding is.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Responsibility for the funding and oversight of InterTradeIreland sits with the Northern Ireland Executive. Information on funding provided to InterTradeIreland should be sought from the relevant Northern Ireland Executive department.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the monetary value of trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom in each year since 2020; and if she will provide a breakdown of that trade by movements from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, including goods and services.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
HMRC does not hold all the data requested. HMRC has published management information for 2021 to 2024 on goods moving into Northern Ireland from Great Britain:
To note: the total value published for 2022 was revised from £14.1 billion to £14.2 billion with the release of the 2023 data.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many supplementary declarations have been submitted to HMRC since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
The total number of supplementary customs declarations for international trade in goods that were submitted to HMRC and cleared between 2021 and 2025 was 264 million.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the value of trade between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in each year since 2020; and if she will provide a breakdown of that trade by imports, exports, goods and services.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK including published statistics on goods between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
HMRC releases this information quarterly, as an Accredited National Statistic called the UK Regional Trade in Goods Statistics (RTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com). From this website, it is possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria.
If you need help or support in constructing a table from the data on uktradeinfo, please contact [email protected]. HMRC is only responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods, therefore we do not hold data on the supply of services moving between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much funding has been allocated to Intertrade UK since its establishment; from which departmental budget that funding has been provided; and what that funding is intended to support.
Answered by Hilary Benn
The UK Government provided Intertrade UK with £2.25m funding as part of the wider £16.6m Internal Market Package at Autumn Budget 2025. The funding allocation is split evenly over three financial years, commencing in 2026/2027.
Intertrade UK was established by the UK Government to advise on and promote trade across the UK’s internal market. The funding has been provided to enable Intertrade UK to deliver on its published work programme which can be viewed here.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if HM Treasury will review Northern Ireland’s funding settlement following the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council’s assessment that Northern Ireland is funded at or slightly below its level of assessed need.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This is the largest Spending Review settlement received by the Northern Ireland Executive, in real terms, since devolution in 1998.
Under the latest Spending Review, the Northern Ireland Executive is funded above 124% of comparable UK Government spending in England in every year, reflecting Northern Ireland’s higher assessed level of need.
Northern Ireland benefits from a 24% needs‑based factor, agreed with the Executive in 2024 and grounded in independent assessment, equivalent to an additional £1.4 bn over 2024/25-2028/29.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the Government has plans to review Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 places a legal duty on directors to have regard in their decision-making to the interests of employees, and to the impact of the company’s operations on the community and the environment. It also requires directors to consider a range of other factors, including the long term consequences of any decision.. The government has no plans to review this important legal duty.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made with the devolved Administrations of the level of public confidence in the consistency and fairness of sentencing decisions across the UK, including in cases involving social media-related offences and serious criminal offences; and whether his Department plans to review the potential impact of sentencing outcomes on public confidence in the criminal justice system.
Answered by Jake Richards - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for the independent courts. In England and Wales, courts sentence offenders within the framework set by Parliament and in accordance with guidelines issued by the independent Sentencing Council. Those guidelines are designed to promote consistency and transparency, while ensuring that courts can take full account of the circumstances of each case, including culpability, harm, and any relevant aggravating and mitigating factors.
Sentencing policy is devolved in Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Government continues to engage constructively with the devolved governments on justice matters where appropriate, but has not made a formal UK-wide assessment of public confidence in sentencing. Differences in approach reflect separate legal systems, but there is shared interest across jurisdictions in maintaining public confidence and effective justice outcomes.
In England and Wales, the Government closely monitors public confidence in the criminal justice system through a range of published data and is committed to ensuring that sentencing outcomes across all offences (including specific communication offences), punish offenders, protect the public, support victims and command confidence. As part of wider sentencing reforms, we are taking forward measures to strengthen the effectiveness and transparency of sentencing, including implementing the recommendations of the Independent Sentencing Review.
Asked by: Alex Easton (Independent - North Down)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland Minister of Justice on public confidence in sentencing decisions in Northern Ireland; and whether he has made an assessment of trends in the level of public confidence in the criminal justice system.
Answered by Hilary Benn
It is important that there is confidence in the justice system. I regularly meet with the Northern Ireland Minister of Justice to discuss areas of mutual interest and concern.
Policing and justice, with the exception of national security, are devolved matters. As such, I understand that the Minister of Justice has introduced the Criminal Justice (Sentencing etc) Bill in the Northern Ireland Assembly, which aims to create more stringent sentences for a range of offences.