Written questions by Burghart.

With reference to his Department's press release on the award of a £1.6 billion contract to Thales in Belfast for the manufacture of lightweight-multirole missiles, published on 2 March 2025, under what circumstances the contract could be terminated.

The contract includes provisions for termination in a range of circumstances. Releasing the detail of those provisions could potentially harm our relations with the Government of Ukraine, noting that the contract was placed on its behalf pursuant to an international agreement between the UK and Ukraine and is being funded by the Ukraine Government, with support from UK Export Finance.

If she will make an estimate of the number of claims that have been (a) made and (b) paid under the Duty Reimbursement Scheme for goods brought into Northern Ireland since the scheme was established.

The Duty Reimbursement Scheme (DRS) has been operational since June 2023, allowing businesses who move goods into Northern Ireland to reclaim or remit duty provided that the goods can be shown not to have subsequently entered the EU. DRS claims are processed within 120 days of receipt, although generally the processing time for claims is much shorter. As of 14 March 2025, the average processing time for a DRS claim is 16 days. Businesses also have a three-year window from the date they were notified of the duty being owed to make a claim under the DRS. HMRC has published extensive guidance and will continue to support businesses to use the scheme effectively, as well as other schemes such as the Customs Duty Waiver Scheme.

If she will make an estimate of the average time taken for applicants to the Duty Reimbursement Scheme to be reimbursed for duty paid on goods brought into Northern Ireland.

The Duty Reimbursement Scheme (DRS) has been operational since June 2023, allowing businesses who move goods into Northern Ireland to reclaim or remit duty provided that the goods can be shown not to have subsequently entered the EU. DRS claims are processed within 120 days of receipt, although generally the processing time for claims is much shorter. As of 14 March 2025, the average processing time for a DRS claim is 16 days. Businesses also have a three-year window from the date they were notified of the duty being owed to make a claim under the DRS. HMRC has published extensive guidance and will continue to support businesses to use the scheme effectively, as well as other schemes such as the Customs Duty Waiver Scheme.

With reference to his Department's press release on the award of a £1.6 billion contract to Thales in Belfast for the manufacture of lightweight-multirole missiles, published on 2 March 2025, whether the contract was awarded under a single-source procurement route.

The Ukraine Government has selected the Lightweight Multi-role Missile because it has demonstrated itself to be a highly effective short-range air defence capability. This procurement was not subject to competition, noting that it is excluded from applicable procurement legislation as we are acting on behalf of the Ukraine Government pursuant to an international agreement between the UK and Ukraine.

With reference to his Department's press release on the award of a £1.6 billion contract to Thales in Belfast for the manufacture of lightweight-multirole missiles, published on 2 March 2025, whether a value-for-money assessment was conducted before awarding the contract.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him to Question 35734 on 10 March 2025.

With reference to his Department's press release on the award of a £1.6 billion contract to Thales in Belfast for the manufacture of lightweight-multirole missiles, published on 2 March 2025, whether (a) an open prior information notice or (b) a voluntary ex-ante transparency notice was published in relation to the procurement.

Neither a Prior Information Notice nor voluntary ex-ante transparency notice were published, noting that this procurement is excluded from applicable procurement legislation as it is pursuant to an international agreement between the UK and Ukraine.

With reference to his Department's press release on the award of a £1.6 billion contract to Thales in Belfast for the manufacture of lightweight-multirole missiles, published on 2 March 2025, whether specific contractual provisions allow for the potential extension of the contract.

The contract does not include executable options to extend its duration. The scope will be awarded in a phased manner, and the contract does include provisions to extend specific delivery dates in certain circumstances.

How many people residing in the UK have indefinite leave to remain.

The Home Office publishes statistics relating to indefinite leave to remain in the Immigration system statistics publication.Data on grants and refusals of settlement can be found in the Settlement data tables. The latest data relates up to the end of 2024.

With reference to his oral contribution of 26 February 2025, Official Report, column 763, by when he plans to have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Irish government on their co-operation with the Omagh Inquiry.

The Government has the deepest sympathy for all of those affected by the Omagh bomb in August 1998. It was a terrible atrocity committed by the Real IRA at a time when the people of Northern Ireland were looking to a future without violence, causing immeasurable damage to the families who lost loved ones and those who were injured.I welcome the Irish Government's public commitments to cooperate with the Omagh Bombing Inquiry, through the memorandum of understanding which will be agreed directly between the Inquiry and Irish Government in the coming weeks. The Inquiry is independent of Government, however as sponsoring Minister, I see this as a positive step in enabling the Inquiry to fulfil its important role.

Whether his Department made an assessment of the value-for-money of the award the contract to Thales Northern Ireland for lightweight-multirole missiles prior to the award of that contract on 2 March 2025.

Value for Money of the contract has been assessed in accordance with normal Departmental practice, including benchmarking, in addition to a bottom-up price assessment. In addition to UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) internal assurance the Ukrainian MOD have also been satisfied that the deal represents good Value for Money.

With reference to his Department's press release entitled Historic £1.6bn deal provides thousands of air defence missiles for Ukraine and boosts UK jobs and growth), published on 2 March 2025, whether (a) an open prior information notice or (b) a voluntary ex-ante transparency notice was published in relation to the procurement.

Neither a Prior Information Notice nor voluntary ex-ante transparency notice were published, noting that this procurement is excluded from applicable procurement legislation as it is pursuant to an international agreement between the UK and Ukraine.

What weightings were applied to (a) technical capability, (b) cost, (c) delivery timelines and (d) risk assessment in the award of the contract to Thales Northern Ireland for lightweight-multirole missiles.

This procurement was not subject to competition, in accordance with applicable procurement legislation, and therefore tender assessment weightings were not applicable.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the imposition of tariffs by the European Union on the United States on levels of trade between the United States and (a) the UK, (b) Great Britain and (c) Northern Ireland.

As we've said previously, we champion free and open trade and will continue to work with our international partners to establish this.We will continue to monitor any further developments, and we will always do what is in the national interest for our economy, businesses and the British people across Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of trade tariffs imposed on the EU by the United States on businesses in Northern Ireland.

We have a strong and proud tradition over centuries of free trade here in the United Kingdom, and we will continue to make the case for that. With regard to our specific trading relationship with the United States, after conversations between the Prime Minister and the President in the Oval Office in February, we wish to deepen our trading relationship with the United States. We will continue to monitor the impact of any such policy on Northern Ireland and I continue to regularly discuss issues with my European counterpart Maroš Šefčovič.

Whether it is her policy to implement in full all of the recommendations of the Bellamy Review of Criminal Legal Aid.

The previous Government commissioned the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review (CLAIR), chaired by Lord Bellamy KC, to provide analysis of the criminal legal aid system and explore the ways in which the Government could ensure its long-term sustainability. This Government continues to keep the Review’s findings under consideration as we look at options for reform in the criminal legal aid sector. For example, in November 2024, in response to the Crime Lower consultation, we announced fee uplifts totalling £24 million. That included £18.5 million to uplift police station fee schemes to begin the process of removing financial disparities between police station schemes to establish uniformity, meaning most police station fee schemes in the same region attract one fixed fee as recommended by CLAIR. We also introduced a separate Youth Court fee scheme, responding to CLAIR’s recommendation for the importance of youth work to be reflected. We invested £5.1 million, enhancing fees for the most serious cases. This will help to reduce the disparity between the Youth and Crown Courts by prioritising cases that would be paid at the Crown Court rates if the defendant were an adult. In December 2024, we announced that criminal legal aid solicitors will receive up to £92 million more a year to help address the ongoing challenges in the criminal justice system. This is in addition to the £24 million and will take the total uplift in funding for criminal legal aid solicitor fees since CLAIR to 24%. The previous Government established the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board (CLAAB) in October 2022. This followed the CLAIR recommendation that an advisory board be created to encourage a more joined-up approach to criminal legal aid within the criminal justice system. CLAAB published its first annual report in November 2024 which the Government is considering and Ministers remain committed to working with the sector, including representatives from the solicitor and barrister professions, on further opportunities for reform.

How many people have had their Indefinite Leave to Remain revoked by her Department's status review unit in each of the last five years.

The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at a disproportionate cost.

How many people have had their Indefinite Leave to Remain revoked by the special cases unit in each of the last five years.

The information requested is not centrally held and could only be collected and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

How many people have had their Indefinite Leave to Remain status revoked by the foreign national offender returns command in each of the last five years.

Data on numbers of revocations of leave to remain are not currently published.The Home Office publishes data on returns of foreign national offenders (FNOs) in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on quarterly returns of FNOs by return type are published in tables Ret_D03 and Ret_D04 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’. The latest data is for end September 2024. Data to end December 2024 will be released on 27th February. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. Data on numbers of revocations of leave to remain are not currently published in these statistics, and could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.Deportations are a specific subset of returns which are enforced either following a criminal conviction or when it is judged that a person’s removal from the UK is conducive to the public good.A deportation order requires an individual to leave the United Kingdom. It also prohibits them from re-entering the country for as long as it is in force and invalidates any leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom given to them before the Order is made or while it is in force.Data on deportations are not currently published by the Home Office.

Whether the Government plans to implement the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in full.

On 16 January the Home Secretary set out to Parliament the steps the Government is taking to tackle the terrible crimes of child sexual exploitation and abuse.This included a commitment to set out a plan, before Easter, for the action the Government will take against the 20 recommendations from the final Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) report.This followed the Home Secretary's statement to Parliament of 6 January in which she committed to several new measures which respond to IICSA's recommendations, including introducing a mandatory duty for those working with children to report sexual abuse and exploitation, making grooming an aggravating factor to toughen up sentencing, and introducing a new performance framework for policing.The Home Secretary has written to the National Police Chiefs' Council requesting officers look again at these unsolved and closed grooming gangs cases, backed by £2.5m in funding for stronger investigations The remit of the Independent Child Sexual Abuse Review Panel has also been extended so that it covers not just historic cases before 2013 but all cases since to ensure victims of abuse have the right to an independent review.

Which teams in her Department can revoke a person's Indefinite Leave to Remain.

Indefinite Leave to Remain can be revoked by the Home Office’s Status Review Unit (SRU), Special Cases Unit (SCU) and Foreign National Offender Returns Command (FNORC).