Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of permitting the sale of duty free goods to people on flights between Northern Ireland and EU airports.

The government is committed to preserving frictionless movement of people and goods between Northern Ireland and Ireland. This is important to communities across Northern Ireland.

Enabling duty-free shopping between Northern Ireland and the EU (of which Ireland is a member) without also introducing border controls on the island of Ireland would lead to significant distortions of trade as well as a significant revenue loss for both UK and Ireland. This is because it would create a legal route for unlimited amounts of alcohol and tobacco to flow into the UK market duty-free.