Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when the technical working group established to explore the case for changing Air Passenger Duty in Northern Ireland will next meet; and whether this meeting will be open to the public.

The government established a technical working group to explore the operational and legal challenges to changing APD in Northern Ireland at Budget 2018.

Members include representatives from industry, experts, and civil servants from both the UK government and Northern Ireland.

Since the Technical Working Group was established, the UK Government has published a consultation on aviation tax reform, to consider how APD could better support Union connectivity and our environmental objectives. We have engaged with the Northern Ireland Executive as part of this process and will be considering their views as we consider the consultation responses in detail.

We will update on the next steps following the consultation in due course.