Wednesday Volume 651 12 December 2018 No. 222 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Wednesday 12 December 2018 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2018 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 263 12 DECEMBER 2018 264 across Northern Ireland, but around the rest of this House of Commons country. Those commemorate individual actions and tragedies.The national memorial is the one in Staffordshire, Wednesday 12 December 2018 and we should not underestimate its importance or value—it having been opened by Her Majesty the Queen and recording the names of everybody who has been The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock killed on service in Northern Ireland and other conflicts. PRAYERS Mr Speaker: I would gently point out that this is not an essay exchange competition; this is Question Time. For goodness’ sake, let’s speed up. [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): Will the Minister remind the House how many brave British service personnel were killed or wounded in Operation Banner, which was Oral Answers to Questions the defence by this country against a terrorist onslaught in Northern Ireland? NORTHERN IRELAND John Penrose: Having been in the job for three and a half weeks, I am afraid that I do not have the precise number, but it was very many and the tragedy was huge. The Secretary of State was asked— Gavin Robinson (Belfast East) (DUP): One of the last British Service Personnel Memorial formal acts I did as Lord Mayor of Belfast in 2013 was to unveil a memorial stone in the Belfast City Council 1. John Mann (Bassetlaw) (Lab): If the Government memorial garden to the Ulster Defence Regiment and will make it its policy to build a national memorial to others who served in Operation Banner. May I invite British service personnel killed on service in Northern the Minister to come with me to see the memorial there Ireland. [908071] and to consider how best nationally we could reflect the Government’srecognition of sacrifice in Northern Ireland? The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (John Penrose): May I start by paying tribute to my predecessor John Penrose: I will gladly go to that memorial. in this role, my hon. Friend the Member for North West Cambridgeshire (Mr Vara), who has been typically generous and helpful with his time and efforts during Business Promotion the handover? I am sure that everyone on both sides of the House 2. Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge and Malling) (Con): will agree that we all owe a vast debt of gratitude to the What recent steps she has taken to promote Northern heroism and bravery of British servicemen and women Ireland businesses throughout the world. [908072] who were killed upholding the rule of law in Northern Ireland. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. Within 7. Craig Tracey (North Warwickshire) (Con): What the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire sits recent steps she has taken to promote Northern Ireland the armed forces memorial. Rightly, it includes the businesses throughout the world. [908077] names of every member of the armed forces killed while serving in Northern Ireland, as a permanent reminder The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office (John of their bravery and sacrifice. Penrose): Britain is a global trading nation and is about to become more global, so we want to promote the John Mann: Anthony Dykes, who came from Harworth, strengths of Northern Ireland’s business community to a mining village in my constituency, was murdered on a global audience. So far, I have visited CM Precision 5 April 1979. His parents, Fred and Kathleen Dykes, are Components in Downpatrick, the Causeway Chamber two of the finest people I have ever met and represent of Commerce, Randox in Antrim, Coca-Cola in Lisburn, everything that is good about my community and this Queen’s University Centre of Excellence in Precision country. Other grieving parents have specific memorials. Medicine in Belfast and many Northern Ireland For Fred and Kathleen’s son and others who were killed representatives of the Federation of Small Businesses, or murdered on duty in Northern Ireland, there is no Chamber of Commerce, Confederation of British Industry such memorial. Is it not now time that, as with other and Institute of Directors. conflicts, there is a specific memorial for those who served our country and lost their lives in the conflict in Tom Tugendhat: On every visit I make to embassies in Northern Ireland? my role as Chair of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, it has been made very clear to me that Northern John Penrose: I understand and empathise with the Ireland has an amazing economy that is growing and hon. Gentleman and his constituents. In fact, as I has a rightful place around the world. Does my right visited the former Massereene Army barracks in Northern hon. Friend—forgive me, I meant my hon. Friend; the Ireland last week, I paused to pay my respects at a local day is young—agree that Northern Ireland’s economic memorial to two former Army engineers who were achievements would only be greater if the Northern killed in 2009. There are many such memorials to Ireland Assembly were out there assisting and promoting individual acts of heroism or tragedy scattered not just it through the Northern Ireland Executive? 265 Oral Answers 12 DECEMBER 2018 Oral Answers 266 John Penrose: I completely agree that things would be all sides to get going again, because, clearly, these issues hugely improved by a functioning Assembly and Executive. are important to the people of Northern Ireland and I have been in this role for only a couple of weeks, but, need to be addressed. as a former businessman, I have been hugely impressed by the economic progress since the Belfast agreement. EU Withdrawal Agreement Northern Ireland is open for business and we want the whole world to know. 3. Douglas Chapman (Dunfermline and West Fife) (SNP): What assessment she has made of the potential Craig Tracey: In his first few weeks of meeting businesses, effect of the EU withdrawal agreement on Northern what is my hon. Friend’s assessment of the unique Ireland. [908073] strengths of Northern Ireland for global companies looking to grow and invest their businesses, and what 6. Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab): What assessment her support will he provide as Minister? Department has made of the effect on Northern Ireland of the UK leaving the EU. [908076] John Penrose: In the meetings that I have held so far, I have been hugely impressed by the skilled and stable 10. Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP): What workforce in Northern Ireland. I have also been impressed assessment she has made of the potential effect of the by its world-leading research—for example, in the precision EU withdrawal agreement on Northern Ireland. medicine centre that I visited at Queen’s in Belfast—and [908080] by the strong sectoral abilities in cyber-security, life sciences and aerospace. We are doing a great deal and 12. Alan Brown (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (SNP): we need to continue to do so to promote that economic What assessment she has made of the potential effect of growth. the EU withdrawal agreement on Northern Ireland. [908082] David Simpson (Upper Bann) (DUP): The Minister will be aware in recent times of the success that companies 13. Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab): have had across the globe in the agri-food sector in What assessment her Department has made of the Northern Ireland from China to Taiwan, Australia and effect on Northern Ireland of the UK leaving the EU. Dubai. There is perhaps a chance of hosting a conference [908083] in Northern Ireland to promote the agri-food business and business as a whole. Is that something in which he 14. Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP): What would be interested? assessment she has made of the potential effect of the EU withdrawal agreement on Northern Ireland. John Penrose: The short answer is yes. If the hon. [908084] Gentleman brings me the details, I will be delighted to discuss them. 15. Damien Moore (Southport) (Con): What assessment she has made of the potential effect on Northern Ireland Chris Law (Dundee West) (SNP): In relation to the of the EU withdrawal agreement. [908085] Belfast region city deal announced in the recent Budget, will the Secretary of State justify or explain why the The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Karen percentage of match funding guaranteed for Belfast is Bradley): May I start by putting on record my thanks not being replicated elsewhere in the UK, most notably to my hon. Friend the Member for North West in my city of Dundee under the Tay cities deal? Cambridgeshire (Mr Vara), the former Minister? The withdrawal agreement is the best way for Northern John Penrose: As I understand it, city deals vary from Ireland and the whole United Kingdom to ensure that place to place. They are situation and location specific we leave the European Union. It protects all the things almost by definition, so there is not a particular standardised that we value in Northern Ireland—the constitutional approach to any one of them. They are tailored and and economic integrity of the UK, and vital jobs and deliberately so. I am afraid that that is what inevitably investment—and, for the people of Northern Ireland, it happens. With any luck, some other city deals, perhaps continues the progress that we have made over the past in other parts of Scotland, may conform more closely two decades under the Belfast agreement.