Written questions by Lockhart.

What assessment she has made of the value for money of the Trader Support Service for business support outcomes in Northern Ireland.

The Government considers the Trader Support Service a vital element of support to help traders moving goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland access the benefits of the Windsor Framework.

Whether the Motor Insurance Taskforce (a) has analysed and (b) will publish regional insurance pricing data.

The cross-Government Motor Insurance Taskforce remains a priority, with active policy development underway. Further details, including the Taskforce’s conclusions, will be set out in due course. The Taskforce is comprised of Ministers from relevant government departments, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority. It is supported by a separate stakeholder panel of industry experts representing the insurance, motor, and consumer sectors. We continue to engage with interested parties, including consumer groups. A meeting of the stakeholder panel was held on 2 July. We are also aware of the unique features of the motor insurance market in Northern Ireland. The Secretary of State met with the Northern Ireland Executive’s Minister for the Economy and officials from the Department for Infrastructure on 6 May, to hear their perspective on the market and relevant policy options. I met with the Minister of Finance and Minister for Infrastructure on 8 July to discuss motor insurance.

With reference to the Strategic Defence Review 2025, whether he plans to locate a munitions factory in Northern Ireland.

The Strategic Defence Review committed £1.5 billion investment for an "always on" pipeline for munitions and to build at least six new energetics and munitions factories in the UK. Feasibility studies are already underway to explore potential manufacturing sites across all four nations. Accordingly, the Ministry of Defence will work closely with cross-Government partners to identify locations for manufacturing sites.

If she will publish an assessment of the economic impact of legally binding net zero targets on infrastructure investment in the UK.

This Government is creating the conditions that drive investment, including into the transition to net zero, and we have seen over £40 billion of private investment in clean energy since July 2024. At the Spending Review in June, we invested £63 billion in capital funding to clean energy, climate and nature, including nuclear. The recently published Industrial Strategy and 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy map out how government will ensure that net zero infrastructure investment will boost UK jobs and growth. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) advises the government on its approach to net zero and considers economic impacts in its advice. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) also assesses the impact of capital investment by government, including on net zero infrastructure, in their macroeconomic forecasts.

Innovation and Technology, what steps his Department is taking to improve cyber resilience among (a) small businesses and (b) local authorities in Northern Ireland.

Cyber security is a priority for the government. We are taking action to protect businesses, citizens and essential services against cyber threats. The forthcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will improve the UK’s cyber defences and ensure there are robust levels of cyber security in the digital services and infrastructure which small businesses and local authorities rely upon.The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) offers a range of free guidance, training and tools to help small businesses improve their cyber resilience, including the Cyber Action Plan, Small Business Guide and Check Your Cyber Security Tool. The government’s highly effective Cyber Essentials scheme is available to help small businesses and local authorities get good technical measures in place which prevent common cyber attacks. Local authorities can use the Cyber Governance Code of Practice to manage their digital risks. The Northern Ireland Cyber Security Centre (NICSC), part of the Department of Finance, works in close partnership with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to advance a variety of cyber initiatives aimed at strengthening cyber resilience among small businesses and local authorities across Northern Ireland.

What steps her Department is taking to (a) monitor and (b) prevent illegal migration into Northern Ireland via the Common Travel Area.

The UK and Ireland have a close and collaborative working relationship on a range of issues, including migration and border security. That collaboration includes a joint commitment to protect the Common Travel Area (CTA) from abuse while preserving the rights of British and Irish citizens.Everyone entering the UK, regardless of where they enter from, is required to meet UK’s immigration requirements. Anyone identified attempting to circumvent UK border controls is liable to be detained and, if they are not lawfully present within the UK, removed.

What steps her Department is taking to help tackle online radicalisation in Northern Ireland; and whether she plans to introduce region-specific counter-extremism initiatives.

This Government is committed to tackling those who spread views that divide communities and inflame tensions across the entirety of the UK.Alongside the Online Safety Act, the Home Office encourages industry partners to increase action to tackle online content used to radicalise, recruit and incite terrorism by providing threat assessment, insight and support.We also work closely with like-minded international partners both bilaterally and through multilateral fora such as the Global internet Forum to Counter Terrorism to collaborate on tackling online radicalisation, and influence and align policies where possible.In addition, Youth Diversion Orders (YDOs) are being introduced in the Crime and Policing Bill to provide a new counter-terrorism tool for police to manage the risks posed by young people involved in terrorism-related activity, including online. The new legislation will apply across the whole of the UK.

What steps his Department is taking to help support research into immunotherapy treatments for (a) pancreatic, (b) brain and (c) other difficult-to-treat cancers; and whether he plans to provide additional funding to clinical trials in this area.

The Department invests in research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR continues to welcome high quality, high impact funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including research into immunotherapy treatments.The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with pancreatic, brain, and other difficult-to-treat cancers, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments. The Department is committed to turbocharging clinical research and delivering better patient care, to make the United Kingdom a world-leading destination for clinical research. We are working to fast-track clinical trials to drive global investment into life sciences, improve health outcomes, and accelerate the development of medicines and therapies of the future, including treatments for cancer.The Office for Life Sciences’ Cancer Healthcare Goals programme and the Medical Research Council have co-funded and awarded a £9 million grant to the MANIFEST immunotherapy platform. The MANIFEST consortium is led by the Francis Crick Institute and is composed of academia, the National Health Service, and industry partners, with the aim of expanding and advancing UK immunotherapy research and development capabilities, supporting better targeting and improved efficacy of these expensive treatments, and will look to onboard new cancer types and indications as activity progresses.

What steps his Department is taking to promote careers in the Armed Forces among young people in Northern Ireland.

The current Government inherited a crisis in recruitment and retention from the last administration. Since July 2024 we have taken decisive measures to redress the recruitment crisis, to attract and recruit more from across the United Kingdom including Northern Ireland, as well as maximise the number of applicants that successfully enter and remain in Armed Forces employment. Policies have included one of the largest pay increases in the last 20 years for existing personnel, slashing the time it takes to access medical records from weeks to hours and restructuring the Army’s recruitment organisation. These activities and their impacts will inform the development of the Armed Forces Recruitment Service which is being implemented to further improve the speed with which highly motivated and capable people can join our Armed Forces, wherever they are from across the United Kingdom. The results are clear: year on year inflow is up 19%, outflow is down 7%, the Navy’s yearly recruiting target has been exceeded, the RAF’s applications are up 34% compared to early 2024, and the Army is seeing a seven-year high in applications. In addition to the existing national recruitment campaigns including online material, the Services conduct recruitment that is tailored to Northern Ireland. The Services use Outreach stands to facilitate face to face recruitment and attend recruitment fairs such as the UK Careers Fair Belfast and the NI Graduate Recruitment Fair. They also attend local events such as the Portrush Airshow and the Northern Ireland Armed Forces Day.

Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to ensure effective coordination between Government departments to tackle (a) the spread of child sexual abuse (i) material and (ii) harmful algorithms and (b) other online harms to children.

Government departments work together on a range of online safety matters, with child online safety and wellbeing being a particular priority.The Online Safety Act gives user-to-user and search services new duties to safeguard children from illegal content and activity, including child sexual abuse material and harmful content. Platforms’ duties to tackle illegal content began in March.The child safety duties will be fully in force from 25 July and require providers to establish significant protections for children, including requiring services to consider how algorithms and recommender systems impact children’s exposure to both illegal and harmful content.

Whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the potential role Northern Ireland-based industries might play in helping support the UK’s nuclear (a) deterrent and (b) wider defence supply chains.

Northern Ireland plays a crucial role in the defence of the United Kingdom, with a defence industrial base that is at the forefront of advanced manufacturing and our enduring support to Ukraine. The UK Government will set out in the Defence Industrial Strategy how we will make defence an engine for growth, ensuring that our defence spending boosts prosperity, jobs and security for working people across all the nations and regions of the UK, including in Northern Ireland.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of reports about the treatment of (a) non-Orthodox and (b) minority faith groups in Ukrainian territories under Russian occupation.

We are deeply disturbed by the impact of Russia's illegal war on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Orthodox Church of Ukraine clergy, Crimean Tatars, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and Protestant Churches suffer repression and physical abuse, including the prohibition of religious literature and arbitrary arrests and detentions. Religious figures are reportedly subjected to torture. Jehovah's Witnesses have been banned altogether. The UK condemns Russia's attempt to destroy Ukraine's religious and belief communities. We engage regularly with Ukrainian religious groups on this issue. In February, a delegation of the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches met Parliamentarians and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office officials to discuss religious persecutions. I was personally appalled to hear and see evidence of Russian actions against the religious communities in Bucha during their earlier occupation when I visited earlier this year and met with local civic and religious leaders.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) places of worship and (b) religious sites (i) damaged and (ii) destroyed in Ukraine since February 2022; and whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of contributing to international efforts to (A) restore and (B) protect those sites.

We are deeply disturbed by the impact of Russia's illegal war on Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), and the damage done to places of worship and religious significance. As of April 2025, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has verified damage to 149 religious sites. The UK remains committed to the protection of cultural heritage sites jeopardised by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine's reconstruction, starting with early recovery measures, remains a key priority. We have committed up to £283 million in bilateral assistance for 2025/2026 to fund humanitarian, energy, stabilisation, recovery and reconstruction programmes. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport's (DCMS) International Cultural Heritage Protection (ICHP) Programme continues to fund protection of cultural heritage. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, DCMS's ICHP has supported Ukraine funded NGO 'Blue Shield' to carry out war-crime investigations, capacity building programmes for the Office of the Prosecutor General and funding the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe Heritage Crime Task Force in Ukraine.

What role Northern Ireland will play in the implementation of the Strategic Defence Review 2025.

The SDR sets a path for the next decade and beyond to transform Defence and make the UK stronger both at home and abroad. The implementation of the Review’s recommendations will be a whole of UK Defence effort. We will publish a new Defence Investment Plan in the autumn set out our approach in detail. All nations and regions across the UK play an important role in SDR implementation, driving jobs and prosperity through a new partnership with industry and our commitment to back UK business and use defence spending to grow the UK economy. Faster and more flexible procurement will create more opportunities for innovative businesses of all sizes to invest, grow skills, and put the UK and our Armed Forces at the forefront of civil and military technology. The Defence dividend will benefit every nation and region in the UK, with Northern Ireland benefitting from, and contributing to, this national effort. We will support localised ecosystems and defence-related industries aligned to our national security priorities. We will work with local and devolved governments in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

What assessment her Department has made of the impact of end-to-end encryption on the ability of law enforcement agencies to (a) investigate and (b) prevent online child sexual exploitation.

We have been consistent that the increasing moves to end-to-end-encryption (E2EE) on private messaging spaces, without sufficient safeguards to maintain proactive detection of child sexual abuse (CSA) will have a significant impact on our ability to keep children safe.In May this year, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) published their Cyber Tipline report for the year of 2024. This report indicated that globally there were 7 million fewer incidents of suspected child sexual abuse material reported in 2024 compared with 2023, which was partly attributed to the increased rollout of E2EE.The Government is implementing the Online Safety Act (OSA) regulatory framework, to ensure that online platforms do more to protect their users from illegal content on their services. The Government is clear that platform design, including E2EE does not exempt platforms from their obligations to protect children from CSA.The Government is committed to using all available levers, such as the Online Safety Act, to ensure children are protected online, and we will not hesitate to go further if necessary.

How many cases of (a) suspected and (b) confirmed illegal immigration have been recorded in Northern Ireland in the past five years.

The Home Office does not make estimates of the number of illegal immigrants in the UK.Information about the number of illegal migrants in Northern Ireland or using the Northern Ireland border is not available in our published data.Our published national data on enforcement is available at the following link and includes data on detected irregular arrivals to the UK: Immigration system statistics, year ending March 2025 - GOV.UK.

Food and Rural Affairs, what funding schemes for agricultural innovation are available to (a) farmers and (b) agri-tech researchers in Northern Ireland; and what plans his Department has to support the development of (i) automation and (ii) precision farming in the UK.

Agriculture is a devolved issue, and so it is for the Devolved Administrations, including the Northern Ireland Executive, to determine the best way to allocate funding to support farmers in their nations. In England, the Farming Innovation Programme has been Defra’s flagship programme for supporting research and innovation in farming to help English farmers and growers increase productivity, sustainability and resilience. We do however recognise the expertise across our shared borders, so Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish companies and research organisations have also been able to collaborate in Programme projects to increase productivity and environmental sustainability. This will help farmers throughout the UK to take advantage from any spill-over benefits from the Programme. The UK’s Modern Industrial Strategy, launched on 23rd June, recognises Agri-Tech as a key growth sector and at least £200 million is allocated to the Programme up to 2030. This will offer targeted funding to drive innovation in agriculture and further industry-led competitions will launch later this year. Automation and precision farming are just some of the technologies supported by the Programme.

What estimate she has made of the number of illegal migrants that entered the UK using the Northern Ireland border in each of the last five years.

The Home Office does not make estimates of the number of illegal immigrants in the UK.Information about the number of illegal migrants in Northern Ireland or using the Northern Ireland border is not available in our published data.Our published national data on enforcement is available at the following link and includes data on detected irregular arrivals to the UK: Immigration system statistics, year ending March 2025 - GOV.UK.

If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) expanding RAF operations at the Joint Helicopter Command Flying Station Aldergrove and (b) re-establishing RAF Aldergrove at Belfast International Airport.

The RAF continually assesses its basing footprint based on operational need and the demands of its future activity. While the RAF is embarking on a significant programme of investment across its Estate, the increased use of Aldergrove Flying Station or the movement to Belfast International Airport does not currently feature within the RAF's plans. Should operational demands change, the RAF will ensure all options are considered as part of any future review.

Innovation and Technology, whether he has held discussions with the UK Space Agency on helping to support the development of Northern Ireland’s space ecosystem.

The Secretary of State has not held specific discussions with the UK Space Agency on Northern Ireland's space ecosystem, however Ministers receive advice from officials as required on a wide range of topics, including regional growth.The UK Space Agency supports regional growth, including in Northern Ireland, as a priority. UKSA has supported the Northern Ireland's space ecosystem through the Unlocking Space for Government programme, by funding a Northern Ireland-led project to explore how satellite data can improve public services in health, infrastructure, and the environment. UKSA has also delivered two Small Business Research Initiatives in partnership with Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) focused on detecting harmful algal blooms using satellite technology.