Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing prior public notice of visits by members of the Royal Family to Northern Ireland, in the context of practice in other parts of the UK.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As with all Royal visits across the UK, announcement timelines take into account a number of factors, including security advice.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the Northern Ireland Executive on UK-wide civil contingency (a) planning and (b) response frameworks on cyberattacks on critical infrastructure.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
Devolved Governments (DGs) have a vital role to play in our national resilience and were closely involved in the development of the Resilience Action Plan.
The UK Government is working hard to improve the cyber resilience of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI), including by ensuring that CNI Owners and Operators are prepared to respond to, and recover from, cyber incidents through better planning and regular exercising. We work closely with the DGs to ensure appropriate resilience measures are in place and proportionate to the risks across all four Nations. Responding to a cyber incident is a cross-government responsibility with roles and responsibilities identified in the National Cyber Incident Management Framework.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Windsor Framework on SMEs in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Windsor Framework established a broad set of arrangements to support businesses to move goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including to small- and medium- sized businesses based in Northern Ireland.
On 1 May 2025, we introduced under the Windsor Framework important new arrangements for freight and parcels movements to guarantee that goods can continue to move smoothly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, ensuring that goods sent to or from consumers will not be subject to customs declarations or duty.
As set out in our Common Understanding, the Government will take forward a new UK-EU SPS Agreement, and this will further simplify the movement of agri-food goods within the United Kingdom. As a result, we expect there will no longer be a need for SPS paperwork when moving agrifood or plant products and the requirement to label goods ‘not for EU’ will diminish significantly.
The Government works closely with industry stakeholders and trade associations on the implementation of these arrangements and will continue to do so.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress the Veterinary Medicines working group has made on increasing access to veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland since its inaugural meeting.
Answered by Steve Baker
The Government’s priority is to secure a long-term sustainable solution on veterinary medicines. We aim to settle on a solution through discussions with the EU, as well as continuing to consider all available flexibilities as necessary to safeguard and sustain the supply of veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland. To support that work, the Veterinary Medicines Working Group was established in March. It has met twice so far, and is serving as a forum for constructive and detailed exploration of next steps.