Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many meetings has he held with the heads of the devolved institutions since the creation of his Department.

The Government has been engaging with the devolved administrations throughout the negotiation process. The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union has spoken to Ministers from the Scottish and Welsh governments on a number of occasions to update them on the negotiations, including through the Joint Ministerial Committee on EU Negotiations. In the absence of an Executive, we have also engaged at an official level with the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

There have now been nine meetings of the JMC(EN), most recently on 2 May 2018. Following our commitment to further engage with the devolved administrations, the UK Government has established a new Ministerial Forum on EU Negotiations to discuss a range of issues in relation to negotiations on the UK's Future Relationship with the EU. The Ministerial Forum is jointly chaired by the Minister for the Constitution and myself, and met for the first time on 24 May 2018. Senior officials from the Northern Ireland Civil Service attend both the JMC(EN) and Ministerial Forum in the absence of an Executive.