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Northern Ireland Office: Emergencies

Asked by David ReedConservativeNorthern Ireland OfficeTabled Answered 17 July 2026UIN 17254

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many meetings his Department has held with the Northern Ireland Executive in the last 12 months on coordinating resilience planning for risks that span reserved and devolved responsibilities.

Answered by Hilary Benn

As crises do not respect borders or boundaries, resilience is a shared responsibility between individuals, communities, businesses, local, devolved and national government across the UK.

We work in close cooperation at both official and ministerial level on resilience, organising regular ‘four nations’ meeting. These aim to complement the everyday work teams across government do to collaborate with counterparts in the devolved governments on risk and resilience. The most recent meeting was in June.

This group discusses how each government is developing its own strategies and frameworks to strengthen resilience and identify opportunities for greater collaboration.

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