Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether he has met the Chief Minister of Gibraltar to discuss priorities for Gibraltar in the UK's negotiations on leaving the EU.

The UK Government has made clear that it intends to fully involve Gibraltar as we prepare for exit from the EU, to ensure Gibraltar’s interests are properly taken into account.

I have been closely involved in considering Gibraltar’s priorities from the start of the EU exit process. On 20 July, my first debate in my role as a minister at the Department for Exiting the European Union was a Westminster Hall debate on the EU Referendum and Gibraltar (https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2016-07-20/debates/16072020000001/EUReferendumGibraltar).

The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union and I met the Gibraltar Chief Minister on 12 September 2016 and I held a meeting with the Chief Minister and representatives of Gibraltar industry and trade unions on 1 November.

At a multilateral level, Minister for the Overseas Territories, Baroness Anelay and I met with leaders of the Overseas Territories on 2 November 2016 at the UK-Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council. We committed to taking forward future engagement through the creation of the UK – Overseas Territories Joint Ministerial Council on European Negotiations (JMC – OT EN), to meet in February.

I chaired the first meeting of the UK-Gibraltar Ministerial Forum on EU Exit took place on 7 December 2016, with Foreign and Commonwealth Office Ministers taking part alongside the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of Gibraltar.