Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of irregular migrants who have entered the United Kingdom through the land border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland in each of the past five years.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

Journeys from Ireland to the UK are within the Common Travel Area (CTA). As part of the CTA arrangements, the UK does not operate routine immigration controls of individuals arriving in the UK by air or sea from within the CTA, and no immigration checks are undertaken at the land border with Ireland.

The UK does however operate intelligence-led operational activity on CTA routes - away from the land border. This is to detect those who intend to abuse CTA arrangements. Operational activity must be targeted and supported by specific intelligence of CTA abuse.

There is a high level of cooperation on migration and border security between all members of the CTA (UK, Ireland, and the Crown Dependencies) to identify and tackle migration trends as they emerge.

Everyone entering the UK, regardless of where they enter from, is required to meet UK's immigration requirements. Anyone identified attempting to circumvent UK border controls is liable to be detained and, if they are not lawfully present within the UK, removed.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding they have allocated to Northern Ireland under the Barnett Formula as a consequence of spending on HS2; and how much additional funding they expect to allocate to Northern Ireland as a consequence of the project in each of the next five years.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. Where funding for HS2 has been allocated at a fiscal event or Estimates, the publication will confirm the total Barnett consequentials received by the Northern Ireland Executive. The most recent report was published in July 2023 [1]. An updated report will be published in due course.

At Spending Reviews, the Barnett formula is applied to the overall change in a department’s settlement using departmental comparability factors. This means that Barnett consequentials generated in relation to HS2 specifically cannot be determined.

[1] You can access this report via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023