Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland on UK sovereignty.

The Government’s position on this matter is set out in Command Paper (CP 502), published on 21 July.

Article 1 of the Northern Ireland Protocol states that “This Protocol respects the essential State functions and territorial integrity of the United Kingdom.” Nonetheless, the Government is clear that the current governance arrangements under the Protocol must evolve to reflect the reality that the Protocol is an agreement between two sovereign and autonomous entities, not a relationship of subordination where one party’s rules have to be applied mechanically by the other. That is why the UK's Command Paper sets out the Government's intention to remove the remaining role of the EU institutions and of the CJEU in Northern Ireland.