Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the proposed Windsor Framework on the level of impact on businesses of the regulatory compliance required for the movement of (a) agricultural and (b) other goods from (i) Northern Ireland to Great Britain and (ii) Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

The Windsor Framework removes an extensive range of bureaucracy and checks that the old Protocol otherwise applied for internal UK trade. The green lane will mean that goods being sold in Northern Ireland will be freed of unnecessary paperwork, checks and duties, using only ordinary commercial information rather than customs processes or complex certification requirements for agrifood. In contrast, trade moving into the EU will be subject to normal third country processes and requirements. We have also secured full unfettered access for Northern Irish firms to the whole UK market. This provides a fundamental change to smooth the flow of internal UK trade.