Lord Dodds of Duncairn

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 Rt Hon. the Lord Dodds of Duncairn

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

21 March 2025

Dear Lord Dodds,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how much foreign direct investment into Northern Ireland from the United States of America there has been in each year since 2019 (HL5989).

Foreign direct investment positions are the value of stocks of investment at a given point in time. Flows measure the movement of funds received by Northern Ireland from the United States of America during the year. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes experimental subnational UK estimates, which currently includes data up to 2021.1.

Further information on Northern Ireland positions, flows and earnings with the United States of America can be found on the ONS website1.

Table 1: Northern Ireland Inward Foreign Direct Investment positions and flows with the United States of America, 2019-20212,3 . £million

Source: Office for National Statistics

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

1 https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/articles/foreigndirectinvestme ntexperimentaluksubnationalstatistics/2021

2 A negative sign before a value indicates net disinvestment in Northern Ireland.

3 These statistics exclude FDI related to banks, bank holding companies, property and public corporations.

The Government is committed to supporting industry in moving goods smoothly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Support to industry is offered through schemes such as the Movement Assistance Scheme (MAS) and the Trader Support Service (TSS). The costs of the MAS, TSS and Digital Assistance Scheme (DAS) are set out below:

In addition to the MAS, TSS, and DAS, the Government awarded £1.4m in grants from the Transitional Labelling Financial Assistance Scheme in FY2023/24.

The budget for the MAS currently covers the following FTE staff: 18.5 in Animal and Plant Health Agency, 2.0 in the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and 1.0 contractor. The TSS is overseen by HMRC and operated by a consortium led by a private contractor. There are currently 267 FTE staff employed by the consortium. Figures on the number of staff working on the Transitional Labelling Financial Assistance Scheme and Digital Assistance Scheme are not available, as these cannot be disaggregated from the wider teams in which they worked.

The Government is committed to supporting industry in moving goods smoothly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Support to industry is offered through schemes such as the Movement Assistance Scheme (MAS) and the Trader Support Service (TSS). The costs of the MAS, TSS and Digital Assistance Scheme (DAS) are set out below:

In addition to the MAS, TSS, and DAS, the Government awarded £1.4m in grants from the Transitional Labelling Financial Assistance Scheme in FY2023/24.

The budget for the MAS currently covers the following FTE staff: 18.5 in Animal and Plant Health Agency, 2.0 in the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, and 1.0 contractor. The TSS is overseen by HMRC and operated by a consortium led by a private contractor. There are currently 267 FTE staff employed by the consortium. Figures on the number of staff working on the Transitional Labelling Financial Assistance Scheme and Digital Assistance Scheme are not available, as these cannot be disaggregated from the wider teams in which they worked.

I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave to question HL4532 on 6th February 2025. To protect the identities of individuals which are not in the public domain, it is not possible to disclose the names of individual members of bodies which are part of the Group.

1 January marked the start of the new arrangements for medicines under the Windsor Framework, ensuring that all medicines can be supplied UK-wide in the same packaging under a single UK licence. The new arrangements have resolved the supply risks created by the Northern Ireland Protocol. The UK Government has worked intensively with industry to ensure a smooth transition.

The UK supplied a Written Guarantee to the EU in accordance with Regulation 2023/1182, following receipt of which, the measures came into force on 1 January 2025.

Specific provisions relating to the Windsor Framework are included in Chapter 1 of the Australia and New Zealand Free Trade Agreements, and in the Accession Protocol of the United Kingdom for CPTPP. The Windsor Framework applies to goods imports, and businesses in Northern Ireland can export goods under our Free Trade Agreements, including those with Australia, New Zealand, and CPTPP parties, in the same way that businesses anywhere in the United Kingdom can.

The Department for Business and Trade does not hold comprehensive data on these matters. The UK Government is committed to implementing the Windsor Framework in good faith and protecting the UK internal market. Windsor Framework implementing arrangements have been designed to ease the flow of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and reduce administrative and other business burdens.

Cyber Local is a UK government scheme to deliver tailored support for the cyber security sector. It is part of the government’s work to make the UK more resilient against cyber threats, support economic growth and develop digital skills. £1.9 million of funding will be shared by 31 projects, details of which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cyber-local-projects-2025. The downloadable spreadsheet indicates the project location and whether the project focuses on skills, resilience or innovation.

The Irish Language Broadcast Fund was set up in 2004/5 with funding provided to Northern Ireland Screen from the UK Government via the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. Since 2011/12, Northern Ireland Screen has received UK Government funding via the British Film Institute.

The Ulster Scots Broadcast Fund was set up in 2011/12 and also receives UK Government funding via the British Film Institute.

The table below sets out the amount of money allocated to both funds since they were established.

Figures for 2004/05 to 2010/11 have been provided by Northern Ireland Screen. Figures for 2011/12 onwards are set out in the British Film Institute’s annual reports and accounts.

As part of the allocations set out above, in May 2021 the Northern Ireland Office announced an extra £2 million in funding to mark the fulfillment of a UK Government commitment in the New Decade, New Approach agreement that was agreed in January 2020 and saw the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive. The extra funding was provided through DCMS and the British Film Institute and was split equally between both funds.

The 2023/24 and 2024/25 figures for Northern Ireland Screen’s funding for the Irish Language Broadcast Fund and Ulster Scots Broadcast Fund will be published via the British Film Institute’s annual report and accounts. The British Film Institute’s 2023/24 annual report and accounts will be published in due course.

The Irish Language Broadcast Fund offers several training opportunities for Irish speakers working or aspiring to work in the independent production sector in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Screen is responsible for the allocation of funding to such schemes, and how they are operated.

The Irish Language Broadcast Fund was set up in 2004/5 with funding provided to Northern Ireland Screen from the UK Government via the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. Since 2011/12, Northern Ireland Screen has received UK Government funding via the British Film Institute.

The Ulster Scots Broadcast Fund was set up in 2011/12 and also receives UK Government funding via the British Film Institute.

The table below sets out the amount of money allocated to both funds since they were established.

Figures for 2004/05 to 2010/11 have been provided by Northern Ireland Screen. Figures for 2011/12 onwards are set out in the British Film Institute’s annual reports and accounts.

As part of the allocations set out above, in May 2021 the Northern Ireland Office announced an extra £2 million in funding to mark the fulfillment of a UK Government commitment in the New Decade, New Approach agreement that was agreed in January 2020 and saw the restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive. The extra funding was provided through DCMS and the British Film Institute and was split equally between both funds.

The 2023/24 and 2024/25 figures for Northern Ireland Screen’s funding for the Irish Language Broadcast Fund and Ulster Scots Broadcast Fund will be published via the British Film Institute’s annual report and accounts. The British Film Institute’s 2023/24 annual report and accounts will be published in due course.

The Irish Language Broadcast Fund offers several training opportunities for Irish speakers working or aspiring to work in the independent production sector in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Screen is responsible for the allocation of funding to such schemes, and how they are operated.

The Government does not provide direct funding to any of the UK’s Commonwealth Games associations. We provide the majority of support for grassroots sport through our Arm’s Length Body, Sport England. In this financial year, Sport England awarded £1.5 million to Commonwealth Games England.

In line with the commitments we have made under the Windsor Framework, SPS inspection facilities are under construction in Northern Ireland at the ports of Belfast, Larne, Foyle and Warrenpoint. Preparations are well underway, and they will be operationally ready by July 2025.

The Government has committed to a maximum funding envelope of £192.3 million. Of this envelope, Defra has spent £70.7 million up to 28 February 2025, the latest data currently available.

In line with the commitments we have made under the Windsor Framework, SPS inspection facilities are under construction in Northern Ireland at the ports of Belfast, Larne, Foyle and Warrenpoint. Preparations are well underway, and they will be operationally ready by July 2025.

The Government has committed to a maximum funding envelope of £192.3 million. Of this envelope, Defra has spent £70.7 million up to 28 February 2025, the latest data currently available.

Officials will be available at the GB ports to support and assist those travelling under the Northern Ireland Pet Travel Scheme. To simplify non-commercial pet movements (cats, dogs, including assistance dogs, and ferrets) from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, the scheme will enable travel from Great Britain to Northern Ireland with a simple lifelong pet travel document.

This is a devolved matter and the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive.

The Government will work closely with Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in operating the Pet Travel scheme, including on issues of compliance and ensuring that those with pet travel documents are able to move without interruption.

As the author of the Union Connectivity Review, I am familiar with the issue raised. While transport is largely devolved to Northern Ireland, the Department for Transport is taking steps to improve links between Great Britain and Northern Ireland by funding Transport Scotland’s A75 feasibility study to explore options to bypass Springholm and Crocketford, supporting the Windsor Framework to streamline transport and customs processes, and through investment in green shipping corridors through the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition. The government is also subsidising flights between City of Derry Airport and London Heathrow Airport through a Public Service Obligation.

On 31 January 2024, the previous government published a command paper on ‘safeguarding the union’. The Government is making progress on the commitments in taking forward the policies set out in the Safeguarding the Union Command Paper.

The Government wants all pensioners to get the support to which they are rightly entitled. That is why we have been running the biggest ever Pension Credit take-up campaign.

We know there are low-income pensioners who aren’t claiming Pension Credit, which provides a vital safety net by guaranteeing a minimum level of income – and will also passport them to receive other benefits (including Winter Fuel Payments, help with rent, council tax, fuel bills and a free TV licence for those over 75).

Our drive to increase Pension Credit take up has successfully boosted applications, with the Department receiving around 235,000 Pension Credit applications in the 30 weeks since the Winter Fuel Payment announcement and making 117,800 new Pension Credit awards over the same period.  The campaign has included adverts on Television, radio, social media such as Facebook and Instagram, on YouTube, on advertising screens, including on GP and Post Office screens as well as in the press.

We are now writing to all pensioners who make a new claim for Housing Benefit and who appear to be entitled to Pension Credit – directly targeting this group and encouraging them to make a claim. In the longer term, we will be bringing together the administration of Pension Credit and Housing Benefit, so that pensioners receive both Housing Benefit and any Pension Credit that they are entitled to.

For State Pensions, DWP sends out a letter to customers four months prior to their State Pension age, inviting a claim to State Pension. The letter signposts the customer to claim online which is the quickest and easiest way to claim and also includes the telephone number to call to make their claim to State Pension over the telephone. The customer can also request a paper claim form.

Attendance Allowance is currently undergoing a significant modernisation reform through the piloting of an on-line digital claim process as a part of the department’s wider Service Modernisation plans. This aims to provide a more streamlined alternative application method in addition to the current paper form. Online claims are currently being tested with a view to this becoming more widely available in due course.

Information and advice about entitlement to Attendance Allowance and other benefits may be available from a range of outlets including Jobcentre Plus offices, DWP and other helplines, gov.uk and other internet sites, local authorities, Citizens Advice and welfare benefit offices, Social Services, voluntary organisations, such as, Age UK and MacMillan, public libraries, health clinics, doctors' surgeries and health visitors.

Information on the availability of Carer’s Allowance is widely available, including online via GOV.UK and from places such as Carers Trust and Citizens Advice. DWP continually seeks to improve the information it makes available so as to encourage people to claim Carer’s Allowance where they may be entitled.

Although there is no upper age limit to claiming Carer’s Allowance, it cannot normally be paid with the State Pension. It has been a long-held feature of the GB benefit system, under successive Governments, that where someone is entitled to two benefits for the same contingency, then whilst there may be entitlement to both benefits, only one will be paid to avoid duplication for the same need. Although entitlement to State Pension and Carer’s Allowance arise in different circumstances they are nevertheless designed for the same contingency – as an income replacement. Carer’s Allowance replaces income where the carer has given up the opportunity of full-time employment in order to care for a severely disabled person and is unable to undertake full time employment due to their caring responsibilities, while State Pension replaces income in retirement. For this reason, social security rules operate to prevent them being paid together, to avoid duplicate provision for the same need.

However, if a carer’s State Pension is less than Carer's Allowance, State Pension is paid and topped up with Carer's Allowance to the basic weekly rate of Carer's Allowance which is currently £81.90.

Where Carer’s Allowance cannot be paid, the person will keep underlying entitlement to the benefit. This gives access to the additional amount for carers in Pension Credit of £45.60 a week and potentially other means-tested support. Around 125,000 people are receiving the Carer Premium with their Pension Credit. And even if a pensioner’s income is above the limit for Pension Credit, they may still be able to receive Housing Benefit.

Social Security is a transferred matter in Northern Ireland.

The table below shows total volume of overpayment classified as Fraud (i.e. proven by conviction or admission) by financial year.

Data for what percentage this represents of the total amount of benefit fraud is not available because recoveries in a year do not represent recoveries from fraud committed that year.

The figures provided above only include recovery of overpayments from proven fraud, that is where a claimant has been successfully prosecuted or accepted an administrative penalty. Many other overpayments are likely to be fraudulent but have not specifically been designated as either fraud or error and as such are not included here.

Levels of fraud and error in relation to benefit payments, as well as levels of overpayments, are outlined here Fraud and error in the benefit system, Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2024 - GOV.UK for 2023/24, and here for the previous year 2022/23: Fraud and error in the benefit system Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2023 - GOV.UK

Please see the requested information in the attached document.

Levels of fraud and error in relation to benefit payments, as well as levels of overpayments, are outlined here Fraud and error in the benefit system, Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2024 - GOV.UK for 2023/24, and here for the previous year 2022/23: Fraud and error in the benefit system Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2023 - GOV.UK

Please see the requested information in the attached document.

The Department has averaged 19% of total Government expenditure in each financial year since 2020/21: 20% in 2020/21, 26% in 2021/22, 14% in 2022/23, and 16% in 2023/24.

The Government intends to apply the Tobacco and Vapes Bill across the United Kingdom and it has been developed in partnership with the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive.

In the drafting of the Bill, the Government has considered all its domestic and international obligations.

Internal market movements of medical devices and products follow the same rules as other goods and can avail the support provided by the United Kingdom’s Government to move goods into Northern Ireland free of unnecessary paperwork, checks, and duties.

Regarding specific regulations for medical devices or medicines, no regulatory declarations are required for the movement of medicines or medical devices from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Medical devices across the whole of the UK are highly regulated, and devices placed in the Northern Irish market must be accompanied by a declaration of conformity in line with the EU Medical Device Regulations (2017/745) and EU In Vitro Device Regulations (2017/746), which apply under the Windsor Framework, in order to ensure dual market access to the UK’s internal market and the European Union's single market. Regulations in Great Britain are broadly similar to those applying in the Northern Ireland, including the conformity assessment process.

No physical checks are required for medicines or medical devices moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

Internal market movements of medical devices and products follow the same rules as other goods and can avail the support provided by the United Kingdom’s Government to move goods into Northern Ireland free of unnecessary paperwork, checks, and duties.

Regarding specific regulations for medical devices or medicines, no regulatory declarations are required for the movement of medicines or medical devices from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Medical devices across the whole of the UK are highly regulated, and devices placed in the Northern Irish market must be accompanied by a declaration of conformity in line with the EU Medical Device Regulations (2017/745) and EU In Vitro Device Regulations (2017/746), which apply under the Windsor Framework, in order to ensure dual market access to the UK’s internal market and the European Union's single market. Regulations in Great Britain are broadly similar to those applying in the Northern Ireland, including the conformity assessment process.

No physical checks are required for medicines or medical devices moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

The UK champions, and remains strongly committed to, freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all abroad. It is our firm opinion that no one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe in. We are championing the right to FoRB and promoting tolerance and mutual respect through our engagement in multilateral organisations, our bilateral work, working with the Special Envoy for FoRB, David Smith, and our programme funding, including the Rule of Law (ROLE UK) legal reform programme.

We also use our skilled global diplomatic network to engage directly with governments. Ministers and FCDO officials regularly raise specific cases of concern, and do not shy away from challenging those we believe are not meeting their obligations, whether publicly or in private. The UK continues to hold countries to account on their FoRB commitments and obligations, through our engagement with the UN's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and at the UN Human Rights Council. This work is mutually reinforcing of our wider human rights efforts, underpinning our belief that human rights are universal.

This government stands firm on human rights, including in Xinjiang, where China continues to persecute and arbitrarily detain Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities.

We raise our concerns at the highest levels: the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor and Energy Secretary all raised human rights recently with their counterparts (President Xi, Foreign Minister Wang, Vice Premier He and Vice Premier Ding respectively). We continue to coordinate efforts with our international partners and work in multilateral fora to hold China to account for human rights violations. Most recently we raised the persecution of Uyghurs within our Item 4 statement at the Human Rights Council.

The environment for freedom of religion or belief in China is restrictive, which includes the persecution of Christians. This Government stands firm on human rights, including the right to freedom of religion or belief. We raise our concerns at the highest levels: the Prime Minister, Foreign Secretary and Chancellor all raised human rights recently with their counterparts (President Xi, Foreign Minister Wang and Vice Premier He respectively). More broadly, this Government champions freedom of religion or belief for all abroad. We work to uphold the right to freedom of religion or belief through our position at the UN, G7 and other multilateral fora, and through bilateral engagement.

The UK remains strongly committed to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all abroad. It is our firm opinion that no one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe in. We are championing the right to FoRB and promoting tolerance and mutual respect through our engagement in multilateral fora, our bilateral work, and our programme funding, including the FCDO John Bunyan Fund, a designated programme for FoRB-focused overseas projects. The appointment of David Smith MP as the Special Envoy for FoRB is a clear signal of the UK's ongoing commitment to these efforts.

Terrorist groups like Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa have sought to undermine the right to Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) by attacking those who do not subscribe to their extremist views, including both Christians and Muslims. These incidents are distinct from the ongoing intercommunal violence across Nigeria. The root causes of this intercommunal violence are complex, and whilst religious identity can play a role, so can loss of economic opportunity, competition over land and natural resources. The UK is providing £38 million in programming to Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria supporting locally led solutions in Northern Nigeria to tackle the root causes of this violence.