Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Penn on 22 March (HL6248), what is the reason why duty-free purchases cannot be made when flying from Belfast to EU countries.

The government is committed to preserving frictionless movement of people and goods between Northern Ireland and Ireland, which is important to communities across Northern Ireland and would otherwise undermine the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.

Enabling duty-free shopping between Ireland, which is a member of the EU, and Northern Ireland without also introducing border controls would lead to significant distortions of trade on the island of Ireland as well as a significant revenue loss for both UK and Ireland by creating a legal route for unlimited amounts of alcohol and tobacco to flow into the UK market duty-free.