Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) the Department for the Economy, and (2) Invest Northern Ireland, concerning access for Northern Ireland companies arising from trade negotiations between the UK and Israel.

Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)

The UK Government is responsible for negotiating international trade agreements on behalf of all the nations and regions in the UK. DBT understands that the devolved governments have a significant interest in international trade policy and works closely with them to deliver policy that reflects the interests of all parts of the UK.

The UK Government, however, suspended trade negotiations with Israel on 20^th May, owing to the actions of this Israeli Government in Gaza and the West Bank. It will take a sustained shift in the positions of this Israeli government for the UK to consider restarting the FTA negotiations.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what actions they will be taking to ensure all parts of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, benefit from trade negotiations with Israel.

Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)

The UK Government is responsible for negotiating international trade agreements on behalf of all the nations and regions in the UK. DBT understands that the devolved governments have a significant interest in international trade policy and works closely with them to deliver policy that reflects the interests of all parts of the UK.

The UK Government, however, suspended trade negotiations with Israel on 20^th May, owing to the actions of this Israeli Government in Gaza and the West Bank. It will take a sustained shift in the positions of this Israeli government for the UK to consider restarting the FTA negotiations.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their proposed increase in investment in apprenticeships to achieve their aim of ensuring that two-thirds of young people are in higher level education or high-quality apprenticeships.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The department published the Post-16 education and skills white paper on 20 October 2025, which sets out our reforms to the skills system to support the development of the skilled workforce our economy needs, delivering on our Plan for Change and driving national renewal.

This includes how we will make progress towards our ambition of two-thirds of young people participating in higher-level study across universities, colleges or apprenticeships. This is supported by a sub-target of at least 10% of young people going into level 4 or 5 study, including apprenticeships, by 2040.

The reforms include further investment in further education, with an additional nearly £800 million extra invested into 16 to19 education for 2026/27 above previous plans.

The government is also slashing red tape to ensure businesses and training providers can focus more time on apprenticeships, such as making apprenticeship assessment simpler and introducing new foundation apprenticeships in key sectors such as construction and social care.

To support students on higher level provision the department is reintroducing maintenance grants for disadvantaged students studying priority courses aligned with the government’s mission and the industrial strategy at levels 4 to 6.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their proposed timescale for achieving the aim of having two-thirds of young people in higher level education or apprenticeships.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The department published the Post-16 education and skills white paper on 20 October 2025, which sets out our reforms to the skills system to support the development of the skilled workforce our economy needs, delivering on our Plan for Change and driving national renewal.

This includes how we will make progress towards our ambition of two-thirds of young people participating in higher-level study across universities, colleges or apprenticeships. This is supported by a sub-target of at least 10% of young people going into level 4 or 5 study, including apprenticeships, by 2040.

The reforms include further investment in further education, with an additional nearly £800 million extra invested into 16 to19 education for 2026/27 above previous plans.

The government is also slashing red tape to ensure businesses and training providers can focus more time on apprenticeships, such as making apprenticeship assessment simpler and introducing new foundation apprenticeships in key sectors such as construction and social care.

To support students on higher level provision the department is reintroducing maintenance grants for disadvantaged students studying priority courses aligned with the government’s mission and the industrial strategy at levels 4 to 6.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what percentage of the trade of Northern Ireland is with (1) the rest of the UK, (2) the Republic of Ireland, (3) the rest of the EU, and (4) the rest of the world, and how those percentages compare to 2016.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The latest available data from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) provides the following estimates for the percentage of Northern Ireland’s trade by destination:

Source: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), Last updated 11/12/2024, NISRA website, NIETS Trade in Goods and Services, https://data.nisra.gov.uk/table/NIETS02. Accessed on: 24/10/2025

The Government is committed to the UK internal market and looks forward to receiving the report of the Independent Monitoring Panel shortly. This panel exists to provide vital independent oversight and assurance over the flows of goods within the UK internal market system.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what processes are in place to monitor diversion in supply chains for goods going to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The latest available data from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) provides the following estimates for the percentage of Northern Ireland’s trade by destination:

Source: Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), Last updated 11/12/2024, NISRA website, NIETS Trade in Goods and Services, https://data.nisra.gov.uk/table/NIETS02. Accessed on: 24/10/2025

The Government is committed to the UK internal market and looks forward to receiving the report of the Independent Monitoring Panel shortly. This panel exists to provide vital independent oversight and assurance over the flows of goods within the UK internal market system.

Question to the Attorney General:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to investigate and report on how the failures in process which led to the collapse of the trial of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh occurred.

Answered by Lord Hermer - Attorney General

On 7 October 2025, the Crown Prosecution Service applied to appeal to the High Court by way of case stated, challenging the Chief Magistrate’s interpretation of the law. As these remain active proceedings, you will understand that it would be inappropriate for me to comment further.

It makes sense to await the final resolution of the case before conducting any sort of post-mortem and that also avoids any risk of prejudicing any future proceedings.

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government why they have not provided additional funding to the Northern Ireland Football Fund, on the same basis as support for the redevelopment of Casement Park, to ensure parity of funding between major sports in Northern Ireland.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Northern Ireland Football Fund is an Executive initiative introduced in 2011. The Government has provided funding to grassroots clubs throughout Northern Ireland, many of which are football clubs. DCMS invests in grassroots facilities in Northern Ireland through the Multi-Sport Grassroots Facilities Programme, and will announce further projects in due course.

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the co-directors of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery will be required to take decisions jointly.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Northern Ireland Troubles Bill sets out specific circumstances in which the Directors must act jointly. These include clause 29 (deciding the form and manner in which requests for investigations are to be made), clause 30 (accepting and rejecting requests for investigations), clause 32 (power of the Directors of Investigations to initiate investigations), and clause 35 (determining the order in which investigations are to be carried out).

Other clauses in the Bill set out the circumstances in which the Director allocated an investigation should act alone. These include clauses 33 (notifying family members and others about new investigations), clause 36 (determining whether the investigation should be carried out as a criminal investigation etc), and clause 37 (notifying family members and others about the conduct of investigations).

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether one of the appointments to co-directors of the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery will be from outside the United Kingdom.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Clause 5 of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill stipulates that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland must appoint two persons to be Directors of Investigations of the Legacy Commission. In exercising this power, the Secretary of State must, so far as practicable, ensure that one of the Directors has experience of conducting criminal investigations in Northern Ireland, and the other Director does not have that experience, but has experience of conducting criminal investigations outside Northern Ireland.

The legislation does not stipulate that one of the co-directors must be from outside of the United Kingdom.

Clause 9 of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill requires appointments of the Directors for Investigations to be made following consultation with relevant individuals, in order to inform the appointments process. It also requires me to publish details of who will be consulted.

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the co-directors of the proposed Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery will have the powers of a constable.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Clause 12 of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill stipulates that a Director of Investigations is designated as a person having the powers and privileges of a constable.

Under clause 12, a Director of Investigations may designate any other Legacy Commission officer as a person having the powers and privileges of a constable, if they are satisfied that the Legacy Commission officer; a) is capable of effectively exercising those powers and privileges, b) has received adequate training in respect of the exercise of those powers and privileges, and c) is otherwise a suitable person to exercise those powers and privileges.

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether control of the cases of Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery will be split evenly between the two co-directors.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Clause 34 of the Northern Ireland Troubles Bill sets out the process for allocating investigations to the Directors of Investigations. Clause 35 also makes provision for managing the investigation caseload. In addition, clauses 44 to 47 make provision about avoiding conflicts of interest, which are relevant to the allocation of investigations.

The legislation does not stipulate that the caseload of the Legacy Commission must be split evenly between the Directors of Investigations. This will be an operational matter for the Legacy Commission in line with the legislation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what engagement they have had directly with companies in Northern Ireland to ensure they are directly represented in trade negotiations between the UK and Israel.

Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)

The UK Government is responsible for negotiating international trade agreements on behalf of all the nations and regions in the UK.

This Government, however, suspended trade negotiations with Israel on 20^th May, owing to the actions of this Israeli Government in Gaza and the West Bank.