Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent steps have been taken by the EU to facilitate trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and what steps he is taking to help ensure that business are able to source parts from Great Britain for (a) vehicles and (b) lawn mowers.

The Government welcomed the European Union’s acknowledgement in October last year that the current operation of the Protocol is having considerable impacts on Northern Ireland businesses and on the people of Northern Ireland more widely.

In December, the European Union published proposals with the intention to facilitate medicine supply to Northern Ireland. The Government is considering these proposals carefully.

In relation to movement of goods, whilst the Trader Support Service and the Movement Assistance Scheme provides support to traders moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, businesses continue to raise significant concerns with me and it is clear that there needs to be substantively different processes for goods remaining in the UK, in order to deal with these very real challenges.

The Government has made clear that discussions with the EU need to proceed with renewed urgency and our continued preference is to reach a comprehensive solution dealing with all the issues now. However, as long as there is no agreed solution, Article 16 safeguards remain on the table to deal with the very real problems faced in Northern Ireland.