H.E. Mr. Paul Johnston:

I will try to take those questions in the order the Deputy asked them. He first asked about the establishment of committees. He is right. There is a range of committees being established, or they have been established, under both the withdrawal agreement the trade and co-operation agreement. The withdrawal agreement special joint committee, which is chaired by the Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, and the Vice President of the Commission, Maroš Šefovi, met last week in Brussels and they were both there for the parliamentary partnership assembly.

I think I read it was the 19th or 20th meeting of the committee. That committee network is well under way and is looking at the huge range of issues to be taken forward under both agreements, and both our Government and the European Union institutions are very much engaged in making those committees work.

That leads me on to Deputy Haughey's next point about the Windsor Framework implementation. Clearly, the framework was agreed on 27 February after a couple of months of intensive negotiation. There is now an agreed process between ourselves and the Commission for taking forward the timely and successful implementation. We are working very closely together on that. We published recently further guidance on how it will work in practice, including detail on improved customs processes and movements of goods. It is all about our commitment to making the Windsor Framework work, with obviously the goal being to support businesses and people in Northern Ireland. As part of that, we are continuing to engage extensively with businesses, communities and political parties in Northern Ireland to support them in adapting to the new arrangements which will be phased in over about two and a half years. We published the first tranche of that guidance and we will continue to do so, and we will continue to discuss both with our European partners and with people in Northern Ireland and elsewhere as we take that forward. Obviously engagement with Irish stakeholders is a big part of that as well.

On the question of reassurances, trade and sovereignty, clearly the biggest reassurance that we could give was to agree the Windsor Framework, with the very significant changes it has made both politically and practically. We think that was a key reassurance to give in relation to concerns that had been expressed on the protocol, many of which the Government shared. As I said earlier, we are in discussion with all the parties about any outstanding concerns. Anything we do will be squarely within the framework of the Good Friday Agreement, with full recognition of its very important and sensitive balances, because the whole rationale for our attempts to reform the protocol and achieve a better balance through the framework was about supporting the balances of the Belfast-Good Friday Agreement.

In terms of the human rights dimension, it is worth saying that the Prime Minister made clear in the debate on the day of the agreement to the Windsor Framework in the House that the UK is a member of the European Court of Human Rights, ECHR; and the Northern Ireland Secretary of State, in a debate at the end of March, on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement appropriately enough said that he completely understood that the ECHR is integral to the Belfast-Good Friday Agreement. I think our view is that upholding human rights standards is absolutely central to what we want to do. The Secretary of State for Justice has said the Government remains committed to a human rights framework that is up to date, fit for purpose and works for the British people, but as has also been said by Ministers, we will honour our international obligations.

I think the Prime Minister showed his attachment to the Council of Europe by going to the Council of Europe summit in Reykjavik in May. It was the first time a British Prime Minister had been to one of those gatherings for a long time. I think he sees the Council of Europe like the EPC as a very important framework for working with European partners on shared challenges. Clearly, one of our motivations for tackling the scourge of illegal immigration and people trafficking is the human rights abuses that are committed against the poor people who are trying to seek a better life but are being exploited by people traffickers.

Although it is not a UK-EU issue in the sense that the Chair said, the legacy Bill is still in Parliament at the moment. I think the process is that the House of Lords has proposed various amendments and they will need to be discussed between the Commons and the Lords in what is called the ping-pong process. Essentially, the Government's determination to bring forward the legislation, having listened extensively and sought to react to what we have heard, remains the same.