Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps the Government is taking to develop an inward investment strategy for Northern Ireland businesses under the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The UK Government wants to see the Northern Ireland economy grow and thrive. While inward investment to Northern Ireland is formally a devolved matter, the UK Government will do everything we can to help Northern Ireland succeed. We share the ambitions of the Northern Ireland Executive in promoting Northern Ireland as a great place to invest, visit and do business. This is why my officials are working closely with the Northern Ireland Executive on a broad range of interventions as part of the Government’s vision to level up the Northern Ireland economy with the rest of the UK and to seize the opportunities ahead.

We have been working to ensure that Northern Ireland benefits from its unique position following our departure from the EU. Through the £400m New Deal for Northern Ireland, the UK Government will target key growth sectors of the Northern Ireland economy, supporting business development and boosting the skills programme. This substantial financial package will open up exciting new opportunities that will enable Northern Ireland’s businesses and its people to innovate, invest and succeed, and will support initiatives to promote Northern Ireland’s goods and services to export markets from GB and Ireland to the rest of the world.

We have also committed to progressing a comprehensive and ambitious set of City and Growth Deals across Northern Ireland, committing more than £600m to this programme. This week we signed the Heads of Terms on the Derry/Londonderry and Strabane City Deal, which will support a range of projects in the North West region, including the Centre for Industry Digitalisation Robotics and Automation, the Cognitive Analytics Research Laboratory and the Graduate Entry Medical School at Ulster University.

We will also be promoting Northern Ireland during the upcoming UK Government 2021 Centenary celebrations for Northern Ireland and look forward to championing Northern Ireland to overseas markets and investors as soon as the Covid restrictions are lifted.