Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what documents will need to be completed by pet owners in Northern Ireland to enable them to bring their pets to and from Great Britain under the Windsor Framework.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are no documentary requirements whatsoever for Northern Irish pets moving to Great Britain and back to Northern Ireland. Pet owners in Great Britain will be able to travel with their pets without costs, burdens or health treatments. For pet owners visiting Northern Ireland from Great Britain, the only requirement will be to confirm that the pet is microchipped and will not move into the EU. This will be in the form of a travel document issued for the lifetime of a pet, available online and electronically in a matter of minutes; or an equally seamless process built into the booking process for a flight or ferry. This avoids cumbersome bureaucracy and unnecessary checks, meaning efforts can be focused on real-world welfare, disease or smuggling risks with checks on Great Britain-Northern Ireland movements, operating on a risk and intelligence-led basis.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the (1) rules, and (2) processes, for transport of pets to and from Great Britain will differ under the Windsor Framework from the position prior to 2019.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are no documentary requirements whatsoever for Northern Irish pets moving to Great Britain and back to Northern Ireland. Pet owners in Great Britain will be able to travel with their pets without costs, burdens or health treatments. For pet owners visiting Northern Ireland from Great Britain, the only requirement will be to confirm that the pet is microchipped and will not move into the EU. This will be in the form of a travel document issued for the lifetime of a pet, available online and electronically in a matter of minutes; or an equally seamless process built into the booking process for a flight or ferry. This avoids cumbersome bureaucracy and unnecessary checks, meaning efforts can be focused on real-world welfare, disease or smuggling risks with checks on Great Britain-Northern Ireland movements, operating on a risk and intelligence-led basis.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the source of funding is for any checks on non-Northern Irish goods at Scottish ports under the proposed arrangements in the Windsor Framework.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Windsor Framework does not change the arrangements for goods moving from Northern Ireland directly to Great Britain which do not qualify for unfettered access.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which authority will check any non-Northern Irish products which enter Great Britain from ports in Northern Ireland under the proposed arrangements in the Windsor Framework.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Windsor Framework ensures unfettered access for Northern Ireland's businesses to the UK market on a permanent basis. It removes the requirement to provide export declarations, or any equivalent information, for businesses moving goods from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, with controls applied only where strictly necessary to manage our international obligations, such as for movements of endangered species. In those very narrow range of cases where any process applies, it will be UK authorities responsible for managing them (with the relevant UK authority as specified within the relevant regulations).
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether project developers will be able to bid for Contracts for Difference contracts in future auctions given that consent is required from the Northern Ireland Executive.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme is currently only open to generators in Great Britain (GB) and aligned to the GB market. In June 2022, Northern Irish and then BEIS Ministers agreed that the CfD scheme would not be extended to Northern Ireland due to system complexities. The Department for the Economy (DfE) is currently running a consultation on Design Considerations for its own bespoke Renewables Support Scheme.
Asked by: Lord Kilclooney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether Irish citizens resident in Great Britain under the Common Travel Area have the right to vote in (1) general elections, (2) local elections, and (3) referendums; and whether UK citizens resident in the Republic of Ireland have the same rights to vote in (4) general elections, (5) local elections, and (6) referendums.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland have a long-standing reciprocal arrangement on voting rights between the two countries. Irish citizens resident in the UK can vote in UK Parliamentary and local elections. The franchise for UK-wide referendums is set on a case-by-case in the legislation providing for the referendum. British citizens resident in the Republic of Ireland can vote at Dail and local Elections but not in Presidential elections or referendums held in the Republic unless the British citizen is a also an Irish citizen.
Asked by: Lord Kilclooney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Common Travel Area, what is the estimated number of (1) UK citizens in the Republic of Ireland, and (2) Irish citizens in Great Britain.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 25 January is attached.
The Rt Hon the Lord of Kilclooney
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
1 February 2023
Dear Lord Kilclooney,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking further to the Common Travel Area, what is the estimated number of (1) UK citizens in the Republic of Ireland, and (2) Irish citizens in Great Britain (HL5084).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not produce estimates of the number of UK citizens living in Ireland. That country’s Central Statistics Office estimated that 103,113 UK citizens were living in Ireland in April 2016 (1). Population by nationality estimates based on the Annual Population Survey (APS) show that there were an estimated 330,000 Irish nationals resident in Great Britain in June 2021 (2).
The 2021 Census for England and Wales and the corresponding Census for Scotland, which due to the Covid pandemic was delayed until 2022, asked respondents about passports held which can be used as some proxy for citizenship. The relevant Census figures have not yet been published, though the first release of data on this topic for England and Wales showed that an estimated 364,726 residents of these countries held an Irish passport but not a UK passport (3).
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
1 https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cpnin/cpnin/uk/
2 Table 2.4, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/datasets/populationoftheunitedkingdombycountryofbirthandnationality
Note that data from this source below UK, EU and non-EU level should be treated with caution and not be compared with previous years due to the introduction of a new weighting methodology to reflect the change in survey operations during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These statistics were discontinued in October 2022
3 Table TS005, https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/sources/census_2021_ts
Asked by: Lord Kilclooney (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the provisions of the Common Travel Area, whether Irish residents in Great Britain can (1) benefit from the NHS, and (2) join the UK armed forces without taking an Oath of Allegiance; and whether UK residents in the Republic of Ireland can (3) benefit from its health service, and (4) join the Irish armed forces without taking an Oath of Allegiance.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
As part of the Common Travel (CTA) arrangements, Irish citizens in the UK continue to have access to their CTA rights, including access to healthcare.
Irish citizens who join the UK Armed Forces are not required to swear an Oath of Allegiance to the Sovereign but must make an affirmation to the same effect. This requirement to swear an Oath or make an affirmation applies to all individuals who are eligible to serve in the UK Armed Forces.
Whether UK residents in Ireland can benefit from its health service or join Irish Armed Forces without taking an Oath of Allegiance is a matter for the Irish government.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have held with the government of Ireland concerning the number of illegal migrants who have travelled via ferry from France to Dublin, and then travelled by bus to Northern Ireland followed by travel by ferry to Great Britain; and in any such discussions, whether the number of migrants taking this route in each of the last two years was confirmed and, if so, what is this number.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
There is a high level of cooperation on border security between both the UK and Irish Governments to ensure we are taking all the necessary measures to protect and secure the Common Travel Area (CTA).
As now, there will be no routine immigration controls on CTA journeys and none whatsoever on the land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
However, intelligence-led operations to target potential abuse of CTA routes continues. Anyone identified attempting to circumvent UK border controls is liable to be removed, if they are not lawfully present in the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to prevent migrants coming to the UK illegally by travelling from the Republic of Ireland and then to mainland Great Britain.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
There is a high level of cooperation on border security between both the UK and Irish Governments to ensure we are taking all the necessary measures to protect and secure the Common Travel Area (CTA).
As now, there will be no routine immigration controls on CTA journeys and none whatsoever on the land border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
However, intelligence-led operations to target potential abuse of CTA routes continues. Anyone identified attempting to circumvent UK border controls is liable to be removed, if they are not lawfully present in the UK.