Northern Ireland will be represented as "normal" as British Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to trigger Brexit negotiations, a Treasury official has said.
Routine discussions will continue between civil servants from Belfast and London before formal talks with Europe begin this spring.
Stormont ministers remain in post until the March 2 Stormont elections, although they will not meet and substantive policy decisions will probably have to wait until after the poll.
A Treasury official said: "As I understand it the Executive ministers will remain in place until the election, so there will be ongoing discussions which take place as normal and normal business.
"Officials will continue to have discussions on everyday business in the way that they do up to the election, but within the normal rules that would apply for a purdah period for any election.
"There will be ongoing discussions and the Northern Ireland Secretary of State (James Brokenshire) has made clear his priority is to see the parties come back to form a new Executive as soon as possible."
He addressed the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee of MPs at Westminster.
Jane Ellison, financial secretary to the Treasury, said: "In the normal course of events I would expect official level contact at civil service level to continue during this period.
"That is normally what happens but I would not have expected that to address substantive matters of policy - those would be decisions taken by ministers."
Independent North Down MP Lady Sylvia Hermon characterised it as a "ticking over" exercise but said the assurances about ongoing discussions were very helpful.
She said: "People will be reassured by this."
Theresa May has said she intends to trigger EU exit negotiations by the end of March.
