MPs to vote on new Brexit deal soon says SOS
Mr Heaton-Harris visited businesses in NI to promote the Windsor Framework
A vote in parliament on the Brexit deal on trading arrangements for Northern Ireland will likely to be within the next two to three weeks Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has said.
Mr Heaton-Harris was commenting as he visited businesses in the region to promote the Windsor Framework struck by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the EU.
Stormont has been in a state of limbo after the DUP collapsed powersharing in NI in protest over the Protocol
The new framework is set to reduce the volume of Brexit red tape on the movement of GB goods bound for NI that was created by the contentious the Protocol.
It also introduces a mechanism - the so-called Stormont brake - that enables a minority of Stormont MLAs to formally flag concerns about the imposition of new EU laws in NI in a move that could ultimately lead to the UK Government vetoing their introduction..
On a visit to a garden centre on the outskirts of Belfast, Mr Heaton-Harris told reporters: "There's some European processes that also are happening. So, the European Parliament have its say on this, I believe, next week, and then I think there's one more stage in the European political sphere for it to go through, so that'll be in the next two or three weeks.
"We will be having a vote in Parliament on a similar timetable."
Mr Heaton-Harris said further detail would be provided in the coming weeks on how the Stormont brake would work. He said that technical talks on the mechanism had been held with the Stormont political parties.
"What I think we're going to do is actually publish a statutory instrument in the next couple of weeks that will demonstrate what we say it's going to do, it will do," he said.
"So, the mechanism by which it can be triggered, and when it is triggered, what that means for the Government.
"What we think it means, and what is shown in legislation, is that when the brake is pulled - because a piece of EU law, that may be amending something, a new piece of legislation that would affect the 3% of EU law that remains applicable in Northern Ireland - well, if it's pulled, then it is disapplied immediately on the brake being pulled.
"It goes to the joint committee where the UK Government will be bound to veto based on the conditions that you've seen in the papers we've published, but we're trying to make sure that people can see it in black and white, so they understand exactly what it is."
Pressed on whether the Government was bound to veto a law if the brake was pulled, he added: "So the criteria really have to be fulfilled at the Assembly level, and yeah, we make an assessment, but in the piece of secondary legislation that we'll be bringing forward, the Government will be bound, yeah," he said.
The DUP has yet to decide whether to back the Windsor Framework and return to devolution.
However, earlier this week, the DUP established a consultation panel to inform its deliberations on the new deal on post-Brexit trading arrangements.
Former DUP leaders and first ministers Peter Robinson and Baroness Arlene Foster are among those on the eight-member panel announced by current leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson.
Sir Jeffrey has made it clear that the DUP will take its time to consider the framework before deciding whether to back it and lift its current blockade of devolution at Stormont.
The panel will report to him by the end of March - a timeline broadly in line with the suggested vote in Parliament.
Mr Heaton-Harris said he was "hopeful" that the DUP panel would see that the framework could "alleviate a huge amount of issues".
"I'm hopeful that the panel will see what we've done for what it is, which is alleviate a huge amount of the issues that were being caused by the protocol," he said.
"We are giving people - you've heard the Prime Minister say only last week - we are giving people plenty of time and space to look at these.
"We're not bouncing people into anything at all. We want people to examine what we've put forward so people know exactly what they're getting."
If it's available on supermarket shelves in Great Britain, it will be available on supermarket shelves in Northern Ireland
Online retailers can serve customers in Northern Ireland as they did before
Reforms to alcohol duty to cut the cost of a pint in pubs will now apply in Northern Ireland
The same medicines will now be available in every pharmacy and hospital in the United Kingdom
When it comes to pets, people in Northern Ireland will have completely free access to travel to Great Britain
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