Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, on how many occasions he has met Michel Barnier since 1 January 2018.

We have always engaged constructively and as a full and responsible Member State, in order to secure a deal that works for all parts of the country.

To that end, the Secretary of State has been in contact with Michel Barnier, on a number of occasions since December last year. The Secretary of State met him on February 5th in London, had a call on 2nd March. They had a joint press conference in March following the agreement reached on the implementation period. Most recently he met with him on Monday 11 June.

Throughout this period officials have been negotiating hard and at pace on issues related to our withdrawal, including Northern Ireland and other separation issues. More recently, they have begun discussions on the future framework, with discussions covering elements of both the future security and future economic partnerships.

We will of course continue to keep Parliament informed as negotiations unfold, in the coming months.