Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the agreement between the UK and the EU regarding sharing live data on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, announced on 9 January, gives the EU access to UK IT systems; if so, whether this includes access to sensitive UK economic and commercial information; and if so, what are their reasons for providing such access.

The EU Access System provides EU officials the goods data they need to monitor GB-NI sea crossings and reassure the EU that the Single Market is protected. HMRC has delivered the system which provides real-time data from five different HMRC systems in one place for EU officials. We have been working with data protection experts and legal colleagues to ensure that the EU will be fully accountable for the protection and storing of this sensitive data, contained in the EU Access System. The system provides information about goods movements to NI in advance of those goods reaching Northern Ireland. Providing data in 'real-time' is a critical element of any solution to the Protocol.