Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress his Department has made on developing the Digital Assistance Scheme to support the movement of agri-food goods and live animals from Great Britain to Northern Ireland in line with the Northern Ireland Protocol.

We are currently in the process of phased testing for the first stage of the delivery of the Digital Assistance Scheme (DAS). It will include sanitary and phytosanitary declarations. We expect the first phase of DAS involving Export Health Certificates for Products of Animal Origin to be delivered next year. Additional development phases of DAS are planned to include the movement of live animals, phytosanitary certifications and interfaces with customs systems in order to achieve a simplified process for generating documentation. The DAS is a Government-funded programme that aims to simplify the process for movement of goods to Northern Ireland or onward to the Republic of Ireland that require certification.