Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government why citizens of Northern Ireland are not able to buy duty free products when travelling from Belfast to the EU.

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.