evidence: If MLAs vote to maintain the application of the Protocol, then depending on how they vote they would have a further vote either four or eight years later (see Figure 2). If the vote in favour of continuing to apply the Protocol is a simple majority of MLAs, then the next vote will be four years later (so 2028 assuming no extension to the transition period). If, however, there is ‘cross-community support’ within that majority, the next vote will be eight years later (e.g. 2032). [...] The second additional stage applies if MLAs have voted for the continued application of Articles 5-10 but only by a simple majority and not with cross-community support. In such a case, the UK government will commission an independent review into the functioning of the Protocol and specifically ‘the implications of any decision to continue or terminate alignment on social, economic and political life in Northern Ireland’. The review is to involve ‘close consultation’ with political parties in Northern Ireland, businesses, civil society groups, representative organisations (including of the agricultural sector) and trade unions. It will conclude within two years of the MLA’s democratic consent vote and make recommendations ‘including with regard to any new arrangements it believes could command cross-community support’. Who will undertake the review is not specified.