Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to using the Export Control Act 2002 to filter unsuitable items crossing from Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland to prevent a border in the Irish Sea.

The Export Control Act 2002 provides the legal basis for our export control legislation on military and certain dual-use goods. Military list items and certain dual-use items specified within the European Union (EU) Dual-use Regulation (“the Dual-use Regulation”), require an export licence for export from Northern Ireland to Ireland. Export licence applications for these items would be assessed against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, which is statutory guidance issued by the Secretary of State and laid before Parliament under section 9 of the Export Control Act 2002. We would not issue an export licence in response to an application where to do so would be inconsistent with the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria. Unless specified within Annex IV of the Dual-use Regulation, dual-use items exported from Northern Ireland to Ireland would not require a licence.

The Windsor Framework ensures the free flow of trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland through a new green lane, removing unacceptable customs processes. The only checks conducted will be risk-based to target smuggling or criminality in the green lane, highly-controlled goods, or any goods bound for the EU in the red lane.