Found: Letter from Lord Carlile of Berriew to Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Cabinet Office Minister re Veterinary

Found: Letter from Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Cabinet Office Minister to Lord Carlile of Berriew re: Veterinary

Found: Letter from Lord Carlile of Berriew to Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Cabinet Office Minister re: Withdrawal

Found: Letter from Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP (Cabinet Office Minister) to Lord Ricketts and Lord Carlile

Found: 8 May 2025, Letter to the Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP re: Sandeel dispute Correspondence

Found: 8 May 2025, Letter to the Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP re: EU related scrutiny arrangements Correspondence

Found: ‘SIR – On the day the Hereditary Peers Bill was introduced to Parliament last year, Nick Thomas-Symonds

Found: 7 May 2025, Letter to the Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP re: Inquiry into the UK-EU reset Correspondence

Found: Letter from Lord Carlile of Berriew to Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Cabinet Office Minister re: EU-related

Found: Letter from Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Cabinet Office Minister to Lord Ricketts and Lord Carlile

Found: 24 April 2025, Letter from Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP re: EU-Related Scrutiny Arrangements Correspondence

Found: The Minister for EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds told this Committee “I am not proposing to publish

Found: Q21 Sarah Bool: The European Relations Minister, Nick Thomas-Symonds, has basically said that he would

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what progress she has made on a touring agreement with the EU.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The UK Government remains in constructive dialogue with the EU on tackling the challenges facing UK musicians and their support staff when touring in the EU, as well as other EU reset priorities. Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds and European trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič have been tasked with moving discussions forward and leaders will take stock at the UK-EU Summit in May.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 22 April 2025 to Question 44342 on UK Trade with EU: Public Consultation, what discussions he has had with the EU TCA Domestic Advisory Group on improving UK-EU trade relations; and what (a) outcomes and (b) recommendations have arisen from those discussions.

Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

Minister for the Cabinet Office Nick Thomas-Symonds oversees the UK-EU relationship including the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) and its Domestic Advisory Group (DAG).

The Minister has met the UK TCA DAG several times, including most recently on 3 September 2024 and 29 April 2025. He also met the chair and co-chairs on 4 March 2025.

The minutes and conclusions of the DAG meetings are published on https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/uk-eu-trade-and-cooperation-agreement-domestic-advisory-group

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with the EU on touring artists.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)

The UK Government remains in constructive dialogue with the EU on tackling the challenges facing UK musicians and their support staff when touring in the EU, as well as other EU reset priorities. Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds and European trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič have been tasked with moving discussions forward and leaders will take stock at the UK-EU Summit in May.

On 7 April, the Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, Chris Bryant, attended the Informal Meeting for EU Culture Ministers in Warsaw, as a guest of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This is the first time a UK minister has been invited to such a meeting since the UK’s exit from the EU. Minister Bryant used the opportunity to forge closer, more cooperative ties with his EU counterparts, including on matters related to touring. The Minister and senior DCMS officials had previously engaged EU counterparts on this bilaterally, including from the EU Commission, Poland, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Sweden.

Our aim is to identify practical solutions to ensure that UK artists can continue to perform across Europe with minimal barriers while respecting the regulatory frameworks on both sides.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had on a (1) bilateral basis, or (2) EU-wide basis, about cabotage for UK musicians who are touring in the EU.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

We are working closely with the music industry, and engaging with the EU and EU Member States to tackle the challenges facing UK musicians and their support staff, including reduced access due to restrictions on the number and type of permitted transport movements when touring in the EU. Our aim is to identify practical solutions to ensure that UK artists can continue to perform across Europe with minimal barriers while respecting the regulatory frameworks on both sides.

On 7 April, Sir Chris Bryant attended the Informal Meeting for EU Culture Ministers in Warsaw as a guest of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This is the first time a UK minister has been invited to such a meeting since the UK’s exit from the EU. The Minister used the opportunity to forge closer, more cooperative ties with his EU counterparts, including on matters related to touring. The Minister and senior DCMS officials have previously engaged the EU on this matter bilaterally, including during an introductory call with EU Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Culture, Youth and Sport Glenn Micallef and in recent engagements with Polish, French, German, Italian, Danish and Swedish counterparts.

The UK Government remains in constructive dialogue with the EU on this and other EU reset priorities. Cabinet Office Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds and Maroš Šefčovič have been tasked with moving discussions forward and leaders will take stock at the UK-EU Summit in May.

Found: For the Joint Committee The Co-chairs Nick THOMAS-SYMONDS

Found: For the Joint Committee The Co-chairs Nick THOMAS-SYMONDS

Found: For the Joint Committee The Co-chairs Nick THOMAS-SYMONDS

Found: co-chairs of the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee, Minister for the Cabinet Office, the Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds

Found: high-potential tech areas like AI, telecoms and high-performance computing Minister for EU Relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds

Found: gifts only) Pat McFadden Nil Return Nil Return Nil Return Nil Return Nil Return Nil Return Nick Thomas- Symonds

Found: Value of Hospitality (£) Pat McFadden Nil Return Nil Return Nil Return Nil Return Nil Return Nick Thomas- Symonds

Found: Minister for AI and Digital Government), Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and Nick Thomas-Symonds

Found: high-potential tech areas like AI, telecoms and high-performance computing Minister for EU Relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds

Found: Morgan MS, said she had met with Minister for the Constitution and European Union Relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds

Found: The Minister for European Union Relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, also visited Brussels in July to

Found: Other relevant ministerial appointments included:  Nick Thomas–Symonds MP as Minister for the Constitution

Found: raised by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy, and Planning during a bilateral call with Nick Thomas-Symonds

<p>We've set out a series of priorities for the future, particular areas where we think that there is potential for&nbsp;movement and for further agreement. So, those priorities would be around improvements to rules of origin or mobility arrangements and some more detailed technical positions, which Emily might want to come in on as well.</p>
<p>Officials are meeting, now, every other week with their counterparts in the UK Government, and both the First Minister and I have met with Nick Thomas-Symonds, in his Cabinet Office role with his responsibilities in relation to EU relations as well. So, we had those opportunities to set our priorities. But I’m also really keen that we engage fully with our stakeholders, and listen to their views and test our priorities with them to ensure that we are representing fully their views. So, I chair the trade policy advisory group, which met recently at our export conference in Cardiff, to further those discussions. So, that group is particularly helpful; it has representation from across business, but also including agriculture and other sectors. I don’t know, Emily, if you want to say a bit more about those more technical things that we would like to see as part of the discussions.</p>

<p>If I may,&nbsp;you mentioned that you're having meetings with Nick Thomas-Symonds and others, and it's good to hear that those meetings are happening. I think this committee, or these committees, did ask him to appear before us. That was declined, I believe. Would you prefer to see the UK Government Ministers engaging directly with Senedd committees on this very matter?</p>

<p>Thank you, Chair. It's a similar line of questioning just in response to Adam's questions in saying, or asking, indeed, how you assess your role as Cabinet Secretary and, indeed, the Welsh Government's role in terms of that relationship with the UK Government. Do you often feel—? In terms of what you can do, do you feel that you have to go through the UK Government or do you feel, sometimes, undermined by what the UK Government are doing or, indeed, that communication stream in terms of getting those meetings—all relevant meetings—with EU partners to have those discussions and negotiations? Do you informally in the office go, 'Oh, I wish Nick Thomas-Symonds would bugger off and just let us do what we're supposed to be doing'? I say that informally, but to put that in a—</p>

<p>No. I've had bilateral meetings with Nick Thomas-Symonds, as has the First Minister, setting out our Welsh Government priorities for those discussions. And we've also had a meeting of the inter-ministerial committee on EU relations,&nbsp;where we discussed this as well, but what we haven't seen is the final UK Government negotiating position. But we've had those discussions where we can input our particular views.</p>

<p>There is a pattern of four nations ministerial meetings to discuss infected blood, and my officials continue to press for progress between meetings. On 3 March, I met with the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Nick Thomas-Symonds, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">and Ministers from Scotland and Northern Ireland,</span></p>