Disease Control: Northern Ireland

(asked on 22nd September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the Government's timescale is for providing guidance to businesses in Northern Ireland on the (a) process for and (b) frequency of sanitary and phytosanitary checks after the end of the transition period.


Answered by
Penny Mordaunt Portrait
Penny Mordaunt
Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
This question was answered on 28th September 2020

Further to the answer given to PQ52196 on 4 June 2020 and the approach set out by the Government in the Commons Paper of 20 May, guidance for Northern Ireland businesses was published on 7 August. This is available on gov.uk, and already includes some information on fluorinated gases, the movement of green and amber waste, tobacco and e-cigarette products.

We have established the Business Engagement Forum, and have heard the call for further clarity from business on the requirements of the Protocol, and on the support that the UK Government will provide. We recognise that with implementation work and Joint Committee discussions still underway, we cannot provide all details at this stage. We will set out further information as soon as possible.

We have established a new and unprecedented Trader Support Service backed by funding of up to £200m, providing end-to-end support for businesses engaged in new processes under the Protocol. The service will start to go live later this month so that businesses can register and begin to receive information about preparing for the end of the transition period. In the meantime, all traders who wish to draw upon its support can register their interest on gov.uk.

We have also committed to exploring further support to those agrifood producers engaging with new sanitary and phytosanitary processes, with further detail to be set out in due course.

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