Government data release policy is an admission that checks are not reduced - DUP MP Sammy Wilson

The News Letter revealed on Saturday that legislation as part of the DUP–Government Safeguarding the Union deal has resulted in the closing down of information available to the public on the Irish Sea border.

A UK Government minister said that it will no longer release information on the number of checks conducted – to protect the green lane or UK Internal Market scheme.

The new policy was uncovered in response to a question from Baroness Kate Hoey – who described the government position as “extraordinary” and accused it of trying to hide the facts on the issue.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson told the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron in a Westminster committee yesterday that there are increasing numbers of checks being conducted “to the point that DEFRA are not releasing the figures”.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson raised the issue with the Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron in a Westminster committee yesterday – saying that there are increasing numbers of checks being conducted “to the point that DEFRA are not releasing the figures”.

Lord Cameron said the position between the two sides is that the EU says that UK “aren’t doing enough to implement the checks and the procedures and we keep reminding them that it’s so important that the devolved institutions are back up and running”.

Speaking to the News Letter, Sammy Wilson said: “You see if they [checks on the Irish Sea border] had been reduced, you can be absolutely sure there would be press releases on it. There would be planted questions in the house and everything.

“The fact that they are holding back [on releasing information on the number of checks conducted] I think is an admission on their part that they’ve just been throwing a line out that is not true”.

When it was put to him that the only way the government has used the powers it took under the Safeguarding the Union deal was to stop the information being released, the East Antrim MP said that’s how it appears so far.

“All of the evidence when it comes to giving information about checks would indicate that they’re a bit embarrassed about it” he said.

He said the policy of not releasing information is “very unsustainable” and that if checks are reduced the answer from the government to Baroness Hoey’s question “will be shown to be the lie that it is. This is nothing about security it’s about embarrassment”.

He said that he didn’t believe that the government has been pressing the European Union on issues around the Irish Sea border – such as which goods are considered ‘at risk’ of entering the EU and therefore fall under full EU customs checks when entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

As part of the Safeguarding the Union deal to restore devolution, powers were handed over to the UK government from local departments such as DAERA.

Since the return of the Assembly, MLAs were able to access detailed information on the number of checks carried out on the frontier – but that information is now controlled by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Mr Heaton-Harris now also exercises “direction and control” in deciding what information can be released by Stormont departments under Freedom of Information requests from the public.

Much of the information available to the public about how much the border arrangements cost, how it is staffed and how it operates has – until now – emerged as a result of Assembly questions. That source of information has stopped since the Secretary of State took control.

Baroness Hoey, who sits as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords, asked the government how many checks were conducted in February, March and April of this year.

However, the DEFRA minister Lord Douglas-Miller said “In line with the commitments we have made, as we move to our new UK internal market system, we will ensure that the only checks when goods move within the UK internal market system are 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.

“But in order not to undermine that approach, as is the case across the UK we do not disclose the specific number or nature of interventions made by UK authorities”.