Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland administration on pay for (a) health and social care and (b) NHS workers.
Answered by Steve Baker
In the months leading up to the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland engaged with the Secretary of State for the Department of Health and Social Care and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on the issue of pay awards for healthcare workers in Northern Ireland. In addition to these meetings, he met with trade union representatives on this important matter.
Healthcare is a devolved matter and pay awards are ultimately a matter for the Department of Health. The UK Government has provided the Executive with a £3.3 billion financial package to stabilise Northern Ireland’s finances. This package includes £584m to provide public sector pay awards for 2023-24. It will be up to the Executive to decide on the level of pay awards and to balance these costs against other priorities.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the merger between Three and Vodafone on her Department's contracts with Vodafone.
Answered by Steve Baker
As an open economy, this Government welcomes and encourages investment where it supports the Prime Minister’s goal of boosting UK growth and jobs, meets our stringent legal and regulatory requirements, and does not compromise our national security. The Government has robust powers under the National Security & Investment Act, which it introduced, to block or impose remedies on transactions that pose a national security risk.
We cannot comment on specific acquisitions nor the applicability of the National Security and Investment regime.
It is the responsibility of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to assess the impact on consumers and competition in the market, with input from sectoral regulators.
The Investment Security Unit works closely with the Competition and Markets Authority on cases that are being considered for both national security and competition reasons. A memorandum of understanding has been agreed between the Investment Security Unit and the CMA to assist joint working.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps he has taken to help restore power sharing in the Northern Irish Assembly.
Answered by Steve Baker
The Government remains committed to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and will continue to work with the Northern Ireland parties to restore fully functioning devolved institutions as soon as possible.
To support this, as set out in his Statement to this House on 9 November, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland will introduce legislation to extend the Executive formation period by 6 weeks to 8 December, with the potential of a further 6 week extension to 19 January if necessary.