Northern Ireland after Brexit: Strengthening Northern Ireland’s voice in the context of the Windsor Framework

The House of Lords’ Northern Ireland Scrutiny Committee has published its first report on strengthening Northern Ireland’s voice in the context of the Windsor Framework, which includes evidence submitted by the Centre to the Committee’s inquiry.

The Committee has issued a strong warning that the current arrangements under the Windsor Framework are overwhelmingly complex and impossible for stakeholders to navigate.

The key findings and conclusions include:

• The UK Government must urgently consider how the institutional architecture of the Windsor Framework can be simplified and made more accessible to Northern Ireland stakeholders. The current arrangements have created a complex and opaque structure difficult for business and civil society stakeholders to navigate. This is also making it difficult for Northern Ireland stakeholders to engage effectively with key decision-makers and have their voices heard. Figure 1 in the report demonstrates the labyrinthine structure that now exists.
• The UK Government must address the difficulties businesses are facing due to the absence of a centralised register of applicable EU laws in Northern Ireland, meaning they must spend time and resources tracking developments on laws applicable to them. It must also address concerns that the important Trader Support Service is not providing a good quality of service.
• The Committee recommends a new unit in the Cabinet Office responsible for regulatory divergence and a ‘one stop shop’, based on the work of the new unit to track divergence, and where businesses can access relevant information, for example through a hotline, relating to EU laws which apply in Northern Ireland in an accessible format.
• The Committee acknowledges the findings of Lord Murphy of Torfaen’s Independent Review, published in September 2025, and supports several of its key recommendations. In particular, the Committee highlights those recommendations concerning the Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee (DSC), noting the tight timescales for the Committee to conduct effective scrutiny of the application of new or replacement EU acts to Northern Ireland.
• The Committee recommends that the UK Government reassesses the timescales for the DSC, in particular the five working days allowed for the DSC to decide whether to hold an inquiry into an EU act falling within scope of the Stormont Brake.
• The Committee acknowledges the Stormont Brake is a highly political topic, noting the view expressed by some witnesses that the mechanism was oversold. The Committee urges the Government to be more transparent about the function of the Stormont Brake so that it can be used productively as a mechanism for promoting dialogue between the Northern Ireland Assembly and the UK Government.

The Committee concludes, based on the evidence it received, that efforts to address the democratic deficit in Northern Ireland following Brexit remain insufficient, and it calls for urgent action to strengthen Northern Ireland’s role in the UK-EU relationship reset.

Image: part of the front cover of the report

Read the report