Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the border between the UK and Republic of Ireland is secure against the passage malign foreign actors.

We continue a high level of cooperation on border security with Ireland; working closely together to identify and tackle those who seek to abuse arrangements from entering the Common Travel Area.

Schedule 3 to the Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 allows a Counter-Terrorism Police Officer to stop, question and, when necessary, detain and search, individuals and goods travelling through UK ports and the “border area” for the purpose of determining whether the person (or the goods) appears to be someone who is, or has been, engaged in hostile activity.

In Northern Ireland, a place is within the “border area” if it is no more than one mile from the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland or it is the first place at which a train travelling from the Republic of Ireland stops to let passengers off.

Individuals who seek to abuse the Common Travel Area arrangements are liable to be detained, and if unlawfully entering the UK, removed.