Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what recent progress he has made on negotiations with the EU on the UK leaving the EU; and if he will make a statement.

As the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union set out in his oral statement to the House on Tuesday 4 September, we have injected additional pace and intensity into the negotiations as we reach the final phases and we are confident a deal is within our grasp.

The Government’s White Paper supplies a precise, responsible and credible basis for moving negotiations forward to achieve a deal that works in our mutual interest. We expect the EU to engage seriously with the proposals and both negotiating teams to work at pace to reach a substantive agreement on the Future Framework in the autumn.

The vast majority of the Withdrawal Agreement has also been agreed and we have made further progress across a range of the outstanding separation issues, including the protection of data and information, the treatment of ongoing police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters, and ongoing Union judicial and administrative procedures after exit.