Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask Her Majesty's Government, in the light of the comments by a spokesperson for the Department for Exiting the European Union to the Guardian, published on 23 October, that “We are making real and tangible progress in a number of vital areas in negotiations”, what are those areas.

The Government has increased certainty for citizens and businesses through the progress we’ve made on citizen’s rights - giving both British citizens in the EU and EU citizens in the UK the greatest possible legal certainty about the future.

On 17 October, the Secretary of State updated Parliament on the October negotiating round, a statement repeated in the Lords by Baroness Goldie. This made clear that we have reached agreement on the criteria for residence rights, the right to work and to own a business, social security rights, rights for current family members, reciprocal healthcare rights, the rights of frontier workers, and the fact that the process for securing settled status in the UK will be streamlined and low cost.

We have also made progress in regards to agreeing some of the key joint principles we want to adopt in relation to the issues arising for Northern Ireland and Ireland - in particular on the Common Travel Area and associated rights - a significant step forward.

Finally, we have provided reassurance to our EU partners in regards to our mutual financial obligations. We have also been undertaking a rigorous examination of technical detail where we need to reach a shared view; this is an important step so that we will be able to reach technical agreement, when the time comes.