British government publishes details of 24 point bi-lateral deal with the DUP

The new ‘Safeguarding the Union’ policy paper was published by the British Secretary of State Chris-Heaton on Wednesday after the DUP agreed to accept its bilateral agreement with the British Government and return to power-sharing.

“At the heart of these proposals is the shared vision of a stable, certain future for Northern Ireland. One where its people and businesses are able to draw on the benefits of full membership of the United Kingdom and its internal market, as an indivisible part of the UK’s economic union,” the paper claims.

The 24 measures proposed are as follows:

• Legislation affirming Northern Ireland’s constitutional status;
• Legislation guaranteeing Northern Ireland’s unfettered access to the UK’s internal market;
• Legislation to future-proof the effective operation of the UK’s internal market;
• Legislative change to recognise the end of the automatic pipeline of EU law;
• Replacing the green lane with a UK internal market system;
• A new long-term, permanent UK Internal Market Guarantee to protect the historic trade flows between Great Britain and Northern Ireland;
• Ensuring there will be no checks when goods move within the UK internal market system save those conducted by UK authorities as part of a risk-based or intelligence-led approach to tackle criminality, abuse of the scheme, smuggling and disease risks;
• A commitment to remove the legal duties to have regard to the ‘all-island economy’ in section 10(1)(b) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018;
• Legislation to maximise the flow of goods across the UK;
• Immediate work to identify ways to ensure that businesses can supply goods and services to the whole of the UK;
• Expanding the scope and scale of goods moving in the UK internal market system;
• Going further on removing prohibitions on shrubs and trees;
• Legislation to confirm Windsor Framework labelling requirements will apply across the United Kingdom;
• Publication of operational arrangements for the Stormont Brake;
• The creation of a UK East-West Council;
• The establishment of Intertrade UK;
• Avoiding unnecessary gold plating in the implementation of new arrangements;
• Ensuring continued supply of necessary veterinary medicines in Northern Ireland beyond 2025, pursuing an agreement with the EU on a long-term basis but if necessary, by a guarantee of flexibilities that would be deployed by the Government;
• A legal requirement that new legislation is assessed as to whether it impacts on trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain and, if so, for ministers to make a statement considering any impacts on the operation of Northern Ireland’s place in the UK’s internal market;
• Including a new Internal Market Assessment in the Regulatory Impact Assessment process;
• UK Government ministerial structures to monitor and manage issues arising from the Windsor Framework or future regulatory changes and a specific role for the Office of the Internal Market to monitor impacts for Northern Ireland arising from future regulatory changes;
• UK Government ministerial structures to monitor and manage issues arising from the Windsor Framework or future regulatory changes and a specific role for the Office of the Internal Market to monitor impacts for Northern Ireland arising from future regulatory changes;
• An Independent Monitoring Panel to provide oversight of the implementation of new arrangements so that Government and other authorities are held to account for delivering it in a pragmatic, proportionate way without gold plating;
• A strengthened independent review of the Windsor Framework underpinned by a statutory duty to initiate the review and to ensure its report is considered fully.

The policy paper claims the measures will ‘strengthen the Union in the broadest sense’ and ‘reassert and strengthen NI’s place in the UK and its internal market’.

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It will also ‘ensure, alongside existing Framework protections, that the primacy of UK internal market rules in key areas is properly enshrined enabling Northern Ireland, along with the rest of the United Kingdom, to benefit from the regulatory freedoms we will pursue outside of the EU’.

The proposed measures will not significantly affect the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and Protocol and Windsor Framework, nor will the DUP/Conservative Party commitments to safeguard the Union have any impact on the Good Friday Agreement and the consent principle.

"Overall, this package of measures reflects the outcome of the negotiations with the Democratic Unionist Party; builds upon the steps secured by the Windsor Framework; secures further changes to the operation of the Framework; looks forward with a broad range of significant further protections for the UK internal market, including in statute; and establishes the structures that will preserve these protections for the long-term.

"In the process we have ensured that all arrangements will operate entirely consistently with Northern Ireland’s constitutional position within the United Kingdom,” it states.

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Mr. Heaton-Harris, presenting the new deal in the British House of Commons on Wednesday, told MPs the legally-binding Windsor Framework adopted by the UK Government and European Commission last year, ‘alone did not prove sufficient to allow the devolved institutions to function with the cross-community support that is such an essential bedrock of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement’.

He said the new package agreed with the DUP will have four core key elements.

"First, it further protects NI’s place in the UK – by demonstrating our commitment to restoring power sharing so that it has the broadest support from across the community in NI.

“I know that I am not alone in believing firmly that the long term interests of the Union are served by persuading those who might not vote for unionist parties, or even think of themselves as unionist, that Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom offers the best solution for them and their children.

“I have always believed that making NI work - indeed, making Northern Ireland thrive - is the surest way to safeguard the Union, and I commend all unionists for taking bold steps to make that case for the Union too.

“We will also legislate to reaffirm NI’s constitutional status, including as reflected in the Acts of Union,” said Mr. Heaton-Harris.

He said it will also ‘promote and strengthen the UK internal market’ by ‘delivering new legislation to guarantee and future-proof unfettered access for NI goods to the whole of the UK internal market; and ensuring that internal trade within the UK takes place under a new UK internal market system’.

The Secretary of State said the new UK East-West economic Council and InterTrade UK bodies will recognise ‘the importance of the connections across the UK now and in the future’.

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