I can certainly organise for someone to meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss that but, as he will know, arrangements with the Vatican were substantially changed in the year 1534, in the reign of King Henry VIII. As far as I know, there has been no change since then to reverse that.

The Secretary of State meets all political parties and their leaders both in Northern Ireland and here. The views of the Government about non-participation are well-known, but he must work with all parties and will continue to do so.

Sir Declan Morgan commenced work in June as chief commissioner-designate, while Peter Sheridan is due to start in December. Formal appointments will take place once the commission is legally established. The Secretary of State and Sir Declan have been in contact about a range of issues mainly through correspondence.

The hon. Gentleman is a doughty champion for rural communities in Northern Ireland, and he raises an important point. I will endeavour to arrange a meeting for him with colleagues in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as soon as possible.

Livestock can move from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, and then return to Northern Ireland, as long as they are hosted at an Animal and Plant Health Agency approved assembly centre and return within 15 days.

The hon Gentleman presented information I was not aware of before. While I am happy to look into it, my right hon Friend the Prime Minister secured a deal no one thought possible. This has transformed relations with the EU and I am confident we will deliver a veterinary medicines deal. The information is new to me.

The cliff edge on veterinary medicines has been removed, protecting their supply through to 025 while sustainable long-term solutions are worked out. Costly phytosanitary certificates for plant movements within the UK have been eliminated. Eleven banned plant species will be able to move again by the next planting season.

We are aware of Ofcom research indicating considerable dissatisfaction with existing complaints procedures. The BBC is also aware and we aim to strengthen them through ongoing consultations within the mid-term review process.

We meet regularly with the BBC's leadership and are focusing on its complaints procedures as part of the mid-term review. The DCMS is consulting the BBC, and we aim to conclude the review by 2024. Research from Ofcom supports dissatisfaction with existing processes, which both the government and the BBC wish to address.

I know that the hon. Gentleman has a personal interest in this subject, and I should be happy to meet him to discuss how we can do more. There are some excellent businesses in Northern Ireland, including Catagen, which has an incredible technology for converting wind power and water into hydrocarbon fuels, and other businesses which should have the opportunity to participate.

I think this is an issue for Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. I will look at issue and write to hon Gentleman regarding it.

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his comments. I hugely enjoyed my visit last month to Wrightbus, a very impressive company that has grown tremendously over the last few years and is both developing electric buses and working on hydrogen developments. It is fulfilling part of our wish to decarbonise the transport network, and it is also fantastic to see it demonstrating the importance of our Union in delivering on our net zero commitments.

For the majority of businesses trading in Northern Ireland, VAT continues to be accounted for in much the same way as when they trade in the rest of the UK. We are confident that the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol for VAT mitigates the risk of double taxation in Northern Ireland. We know of one example and HM Revenue and Customs is working with that business to see what more can be done, but I am happy to take up the hon. Gentleman's question outside the Chamber.

There will be no checks at the border between Northern Ireland and Great Britain for tourist or other visas. Proceeding with ETA to improve security.

I think it is incredibly important when we discuss issues as serious as this that everybody is cautious and thoughtful in their language. I had seen those comments, which were inappropriate.

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that the UK negotiating team are very conscious of the frustrations, particularly in the Unionist community in Northern Ireland. But we have also made the point to our interlocutors in the EU that, across communities in Northern Ireland, there is a recognition that the protocol is not working, that it needs to be addressed, and that the relationships between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK—of which Northern Ireland is a part—all have to function properly. That is the underpinning of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement and that is what we seek to achieve through our negotiations.

Fixing the Northern Ireland protocol is a top priority for this Government. Since September I have been in regular contact with Vice-President Šefčovič. We last spoke on 1 December and I will be seeing him for further talks this week. My officials have also been working with our counterparts in the EU on a regular basis to try to resolve the issues, which we recognise—and we are impressing this upon them—are causing serious, genuine and damaging friction in relationships between the various communities in Northern Ireland.

The issue is long-running. The BBC announced changes to its complaints process yesterday, but I appreciate that they are not strong enough. We will look into this in the course of our reviews of the organisation.

We have an excellent relationship with the Irish Government on security matters. It is clearly not for me, at the Dispatch Box of the UK Parliament, to talk about Irish policy over the use of its airspace. The hon. Gentleman will know, however, that RAF jets have deployed into Irish airspace on occasion. It is for the Irish Government to set out their policy on why, when and how.

I thank the hon. Member for his question. He will know that I am a not very good but passionate sportsman in a whole host of sports, and I recognise what getting more women involved in all sorts of sports can do to benefit communities, people, their health and everything else. I will do everything I possibly can using sport as a tool to both get involved in all the communities in Northern Ireland and try to encourage more women into sport at the same time.

The Foreign Secretary will open the Second Reading debate, and I hope people will listen to everything that she and indeed the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland say, in order to make sure Northern Ireland can fully participate in all the benefits of being part of the UK.

The Bill that is proposed will take vital steps to protect the integrity of the United Kingdom, our precious Union, and protect peace, which is cemented by the Belfast agreement. It will include provisions ensuring the security of the common travel area, single electricity market and north-south co-operation, freeing goods within UK from unnecessary bureaucracy through a green channel with data-sharing arrangements including a trusted trader scheme for real-time commercial data.

I cannot comment specifically on any advice that I may or may not have received. It is not uncommon or inappropriate for Law Officers to seek advice, both from their officials and external specialist counsel. The Foreign Secretary's statement to the House last week set out the Government's proposals. She will be introducing primary legislation to address elements of the Northern Ireland protocol.

I can assure the hon. Gentleman that I am dealing with this matter. I met various European countries last week to discuss reforming the Northern Ireland protocol, which simply is not working. Communities in Northern Ireland are being treated unfairly and there is an issue with getting goods from GB into Northern Ireland. We have put forward a concrete proposal that will also protect the EU single market and we need to see movement from the EU.

The hon. Gentleman correctly identifies an opportunity for Northern Ireland through the hydrogen agenda, including increased research spending outside the south-east and strengthened places agenda, with many opportunities to advance his priorities.

The Secretary of State met the then First Minister to discuss opportunities, and I recently met Conor Murphy, the Minister of Finance, to discuss the delivery of the UK shared prosperity fund in Northern Ireland. We look forward to working closely with the Executive on this.

All Members will look forward to planting trees. I would happily accept an invitation to join the hon. Gentleman in his constituency and plant a tree tomorrow.

The hon. Gentleman rightly champions this sector with Wrightbus in his constituency. There is £100 million of new funding for the net zero innovation portfolio to support industry switching to low-carbon fuels. The supply chain will be an integral part of that development.

My right hon. Friend the Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change has ministerial responsibility for this sector, and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy published the UK's first hydrogen strategy last year. There is £100 million of new funding for the net zero innovation portfolio to support industry switching to low-carbon fuels. The supply chain will be an integral part of that development.

We do not need any international comparisons to sell the benefits of Northern Ireland being an integral part of our United Kingdom. It is good for jobs, it is good for health and it is good for prosperity. We are definitely better together.

The hon. Gentleman is a huge champion of that project. We are well aware of the proposals that are being worked up, and I understand that the Executive and Tourism Northern Ireland are looking at them. If they come forward with proposals that work they will find a willing partner in the Northern Ireland Office. I will not commit to how many wheels or what part of the vehicles we will pay for, but we will step up to help to make this project a reality.

The hon. Gentleman gives a powerful example of the sensitivity and complexity of this issue. I have met victims with similar scenarios and some very harrowing cases, where we can see why people want to be able to get to the truth and the accountability that comes with that. We also need to recognise, as I outlined last week, the reality of where we are today, following the decisions, which I think were correct—I am not criticising them at all; they were absolutely the right decisions—to see peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland with the Good Friday/Belfast agreement and, in particular, the Northern Ireland (Sentences) Act 1998, which came with it, let alone what then followed, particularly with decommissioning and, as we have seen recently, quite rightly, arguably in effect a statute of limitations on 40,000 crimes coming out of Stormont House. We need to understand where we are and be up front with people about the diminishing reality of the possibility of getting prosecutions and what impact that is having on the criminal justice system and the ability to get to truth and accountability. But that is exactly what we want to be working through with groups across Northern Ireland, including victims groups, having absolutely in our heart an understanding of the trauma that people can face in these situations.

The hon. Member's characterisation of the situation in Northern Ireland is not accepted, but the Government aim to implement the protocol proportionately and pragmatically. Schemes such as the trader support service, Brexit support fund, and new movement assistance scheme are in place to assist trading between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The protocol respects the UK's territorial integrity, and the Government aim to deliver it with minimal impact on businesses. They have established a free-to-use trader support service at a cost of £270 million to assist trading between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The protocol deals with goods at risk or moving into the EU. It is farcical to have checks on products not entering the EU, such as supermarkets without Irish stores going through checks. We want to resolve this issue and respect the single market while focusing on protecting the Good Friday/Belfast agreement.

Northern Ireland received Barnett consequentials to support the job start scheme, and our officials have been talking. The money is not ring-fenced, and I am keen to see all young people access this type of scheme across the United Kingdom so that they can get the support they need to progress. Should anybody need further support to make this happen in Northern Ireland, our officials continue to stand ready to see it start.

The Northern Ireland Executive will be running the job start scheme to support young people to progress. Similar to the kickstart scheme available in England, Scotland and Wales, it is also focused on helping young people most at risk of long-term unemployment. The hon. Gentleman will be pleased to know that the DWP has been in regular contact with colleagues in Northern Ireland to discuss the development of the job start scheme and share progress and insight on the kickstart scheme.

The hon. Gentleman is right; I do have a formidable singing repertoire. I can also sing “The Fields of Athenry” and “Flower of Scotland”, not to mention “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, although the last of those songs was perhaps sung with a little less fervour last Saturday than is normally the case. I am a convinced Unionist. I do believe in the strength of the United Kingdom—all of us working together. I look forward to working with him and all representatives from Northern Ireland to ensure that our United Kingdom can flourish in the future.

It is our ambition to publish Lord Dunlop's review of Union capability as soon as possible. Of course, it is vital that we progress the joint review of intergovernmental relations as part of that.

As usual, the hon. Gentleman stands up for the people of Northern Ireland, and he is right to focus on that issue. I will make inquiries with the Northern Ireland Office and see how that matter is progressing, but he will acknowledge that there are no doubt legislative pressures, and that these things do take time.