Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 1 June 2020 to Question 51932, on Abortion: Northern Ireland, and with reference to the statement of 26 June 2020 from the Minister of Health in Northern Ireland that, Decisions remain to be taken on the commissioning of abortion services in NI’s health service. Commissioning is a significant process that will require a public consultation. It will clearly be matter for the Executive and Assembly as well as the Department, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of exercising his powers under section 26 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 to direct the Department of Health in Northern Ireland to commission services to comply with section 9 of the Northern Ireland Executive Formation Act 2019.

I refer to my answer to Question 51932. The duty to implement the CEDAW recommendations under section 9 of the Northern Ireland Executive Formation Act is a matter of domestic, not international, law, and as such we have not yet considered making an assessment of exercising powers under section 26 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.

We hope that longer term services can be commissioned as soon as possible in Northern Ireland, consistent with the Regulations and we will continue to work with the relevant Northern Ireland departments to achieve this.