Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions he has had with InterTrade UK on the support his Department is able to provide on the (a) operations and (b) objectives of that body.

I engage regularly with Intertrade UK, most recently when I met its Chair Baroness Foster in January at the East-West Council in Belfast, where I heard an update on Intertrade UK’s work to date and its future plans.

The Northern Ireland Office provides secretariat support for Intertrade UK, as set out in its terms of reference, which are publicly available alongside the group’s work programme here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/intertrade-uk-terms-of-reference-and-work-programme

At last year’s Autumn Budget, the Government allocated £2.25 million over the next three years to Intertrade UK to support implementation of its published work programme. This formed part of a wider £16.6m package to strengthen trade within the UK internal market.