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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether plans to implement digitally the documentary and identity SPS checks on goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

As set out in the Command Paper on the UK’s approach to the Northern Ireland Protocol, it is the Government’s intention that checks required under the Protocol should be supported by relevant electronic processes.

Defra continues to work closely with the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs and relevant enforcement bodies, who have responsibility for undertaking controls for sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) purposes on goods entering Northern Ireland, on the process by which these controls will take place.

In line with our shared determination to maximise the free flow of trade, we are actively seeking to simplify and minimise electronic documentary requirements for SPS purposes.