Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had any meetings with Invest Northern Ireland on the challenges which face Northern Ireland after the UK leaves the EU.

Lord Henley, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting roundtable on 19th April in Belfast where he met the CEO of Invest NI, who chaired the meeting, BEIS also engages with Invest NI in a range of fora, including:

• Invest NI helped arrange and joined a business roundtable hosted by the BEIS Permanent Secretary during the Industrial Strategy Green Paper Consultation on 27 October 2017, this touched on EU Exit and its relevance to economic planning such as the Industrial Strategy.
• Officials have engaged with Invest NI directly as part of the Four Nations Enterprise meeting, most recently on 3^rd May.
• Invest NI are due to be part of BEIS engagement on the Business Productivity Review in Northern Ireland at the beginning of July.

BEIS officials also have regular engagement with the Northern Ireland Civil Service on key issues related to EU Exit and Northern Ireland.