Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many times consignments of goods were returned to Great Britain from Northern Ireland because of a failure to comply with European Union requirements in (a) 2021 and (b) 2022.

No consignments were returned once they had entered Northern Ireland for customs purposes. Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) controls are the responsibility of the Department of Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Affairs (DAERA). In 2021, approximately 180 consignments were returned by DAERA, or less than 0.001 per cent of the total. In 2022, approximately 140 consignments were returned by DAERA, or less than 0.0001 per cent of the total.