Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information he holds on the (a) volume and (b) value of trade in goods between (i) Great Britain and Northern Ireland and (ii) Northern Ireland and Great Britain in each of the last five years.

HMRC is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website: www.uktradeinfo.com. From this website, it is also possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria: https://www.uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/ots-custom-table/.

Prior to 2021, HMRC has not collected data on movements of goods between Northern Ireland and Great Britain as these are internal UK movements, and so not part of international trade.

HMRC is in the process of reviewing data available, including declarations lodged by traders on goods movements into Northern Ireland from Great Britain, and will set out its approach in due course.

Under unfettered access, traders do not make declarations except in very limited circumstances on goods moved directly from Northern Ireland to Great Britain. This data is not sufficient to provide an estimate of overall trade.