Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what technical meetings have taken place with the European Commission on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland; how many such meetings have taken place; and when each of these meetings took place.

The Foreign Secretary, as UK Co-chair of the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee, and her predecessor Lord Frost met their EU counterpart, Vice President Maroš Šefčovič on 26 occasions since September 2021 to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol. This also includes one meeting of the Withdrawal Agreement Joint Committee on 21 February 2022. These discussions were supported by approximately 300 hours of negotiations over 6 months by UK and EU officials, covering sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS), customs, VAT and excise, goods, subsidy control, medicines, and governance.