Parliamentary Search

Written question asked by Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party) on Friday, 20 March 2026, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 7 April 2026. It was answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Labour) on Thursday, 2 April 2026 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office.

UK Internal Trade: Northern Ireland

Question

To ask His Majesty's Government what aspects of the Safeguarding the Union Command Paper (CP 1021), published on 31 January 2024, have been (1) fully implemented, (2) partially implemented, and (3) not implemented.

Answer

The Government is committed to continuing to take forward the Safeguarding the Union command paper, and to protecting Northern Ireland’s place in the UK Internal Market.

We continue to make progress on the implementation of the commitments made in the command paper. For instance, the digitisation of the News Letter was completed last year and there remains no Border Control Post at Cairnryan. In January, the East-West Council met for the third time where the Government announced there would be a pilot for the UK school twinning programme, which is being developed between the UK Government’s Department for Education and the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department of Education.

Other recent steps include the allocation of £2.25 million for Intertrade UK over the next three years and the opening of round two of the Connect Fund to support community and voluntary groups. In line with commitments made in the command paper, in December the Government published our response to Lord Murphy’s Independent Review of the Windsor Framework, and is now taking action on all of its recommendations.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL15804
Session
2024-26
Related items
Safeguarding the Union
Wednesday, 31 January 2024
Command papers
House of Commons
House of Lords
Subjects
Northern Ireland UK trade with EU Windsor Framework UK internal trade
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk