The Windsor Framework secured an unprecedented settlement for human medicines, ensuring that licensing of all medicines will happen on a UK-wide basis by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) from 1 January 2025. The same medicines, in the same packs and with the same labels, will be available across the United Kingdom.

This also applies to vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines can therefore be moved between GB and NI without restrictions.

The Windsor Framework secured an unprecedented settlement for human medicines, ensuring that licensing of all medicines will happen on a UK-wide basis by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) from 1 January 2025. The same medicines, in the same packs and with the same labels, will be available across the United Kingdom.

This also applies to vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccines can therefore be moved between GB and NI without restrictions.

Consistent with the Joint Consultative Working Group (JCWG) rules of procedure, meetings of the structured sub-groups to the JCWG are held as necessary and on a confidential basis.

The rules of procedure of the Joint Consultative Working Group (JCWG) provide for the establishment of structured sub-groups. Five new structured sub-groups have been established and UK and EU co-chairs for each group have been appointed. Consistent with the JCWG rules of procedure, before each meeting, those sub-groups inform each other of the intended composition of their respective delegations. The delegations are confidential unless otherwise decided by the co-chairs.

Since the Windsor Framework was agreed in February 2023, the Government has been working to deliver the full benefits of that agreement for people and businesses in Northern Ireland. The Government has introduced secondary legislation to that effect and any further legislation would be introduced in Parliament in the usual way.

The Government continues to work with hauliers, including through a dedicated technical working group with the haulage community, to ensure arrangements under the Framework work as intended in the context of groupage and mixed loads. The Government remains in regular contact with the EU on all aspects of implementation of the Windsor Framework.

The Office for Veterans’ Affairs, based in the Cabinet Office, administers a range of grant schemes for veterans organisations and charities. These cover support in areas such as health, housing, employment, and combating stress, and are typically available UK wide.

The OVA was established in 2019 and has become more established over time, meaning comparable figures for each of the last five years are not available. However, in 2023/24, over £6 million was awarded to veterans organisations and charities.

The latest information on the work of the Office for Veterans’ Affairs can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-veterans-affairs

The Office for Veterans’ Affairs, based in the Cabinet Office, administers a range of grant schemes for veterans organisations and charities. These cover support in areas such as health, housing, employment, and combating stress, and are typically available UK wide.

The OVA was established in 2019 and has become more established over time, meaning comparable figures for each of the last five years are not available. However, in 2023/24, over £6 million was awarded to veterans organisations and charities.

The latest information on the work of the Office for Veterans’ Affairs can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-veterans-affairs

The Government is conducting regular monitoring of the UK Internal Market Scheme and Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme and there are clear signs of new traders taking advantage of these new arrangements.

With respect to the UK Internal Market Scheme, as set out to the Northern Ireland Protocol Sub-Committee on 12 October, there are now more than 6,200 businesses registered - 2,200 of which (more than a third) are companies who were not members of the previous UKTS scheme. This list is dynamic, meaning more businesses moving goods in Northern Ireland will benefit over time.

With respect to the new Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme, the broader eligibility coupled with the certainty provided to businesses, mean that we have seen welcome signs of new traders taking advantage of the scheme. For example, wholesalers have written to customers noting that they are now able to “bring back some of your favourite products that we had to remove due to the previous Northern Ireland Protocol”. Consumers in Northern Ireland are also able to see the broader reach of the green lane, with for example shelf labelling in place in major food service outlets, which were excluded from the scope of the old grace periods.

The Government continues its extensive programme of engagement with businesses to identify any practical issues and ensure that the new Green Lane system continues to be implemented in a seamless manner.

We have guaranteed unfettered access for qualifying Northern Ireland goods moving directly from Northern Ireland to Great Britain and will extend these protections to qualifying goods moved via Ireland. Additionally, we will introduce new arrangements for traders moving food and feed on these routes, ensuring the benefits of unfettered access are more squarely focussed on Northern Ireland traders, while creating no new requirements. Details of these arrangements can be found in the Border Target Operating Model published on 29 August 2023. This reflects Northern Ireland’s integral place in the United Kingdom’s internal market.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Lord Weir of Ballyholme

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

19 July 2023

Dear Lord Weir,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what the net fiscal transfers in public expenditure were for each region of the UK for each of the last five years (HL9356).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes an annual article named Country and Regional Public Sector Finances [1], which provides regional estimates of public sector expenditure, revenue, and net fiscal balance. The ONS does not currently have any regional net fiscal transfer data available but does produce measurements of net fiscal balance.

The Country and Regional Public Sector Finances publication includes net fiscal balance information on an International Territorial Level 1 (ITL1) basis. Net fiscal balance measures the difference between public sector expenditure and public sector revenue - a negative net fiscal balance represents a surplus, meaning a country or region is receiving more in revenue than its expenditure. A positive net fiscal balance represents a deficit, meaning a country or region is undertaking more expenditure than it is receiving in revenue.

There are two different measures of net fiscal balance depending on the measure of tax revenue derived from North Sea oil and gas, one based on the geographic location of oil and gas producers shown in Table 1, and one based on population shown in Table 2. The two tables show the net fiscal balance by country and region using these two different methods.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1] Country and Regional Public Sector Finances

Table 1: Net fiscal balance by country and region in the UK between financial year ending (FYE) March 2018 and FYE March 2022, in £ millions. North Sea oil and gas revenue measured on a geographic basis.

Source: Country and Regional Public Sector Finances

Table 2: Net fiscal balance by country and region in the UK between financial year ending (FYE) March 2018 and FYE March 2022, in £ millions. North Sea oil and gas revenue measured on a population basis.

Source: Country and Regional Public Sector Finances