Commons Sense

House of Commons · Ministers' Questions

Parliamentary Scrutiny of New Free Trade Agreements

Thursday 9 February 2023 · 2 questions

Summarised by AI from the official record, so it can contain mistakes.

Read the full transcript on Parliament.uk

At a glance

Answered 1 Partly answered 1 Not answered 0

Key points

  • Government committed to transparency and effective scrutiny beyond statutory requirements for trade agenda
  • Government provides extensive information prior to commencement of free trade agreement talks
  • Minister disagrees with criticism that scrutiny of free trade agreements is insufficient

Topics (select to filter)

Questions & Answers

Q1 Liz Twist Lab Blaydon and Consett
Brexit Business & Trade Parliamentary Procedure
Context

The question arises from the need to ensure effective parliamentary oversight of new free trade agreements.

Question

What steps she is taking to support effective parliamentary scrutiny of new free trade agreements. The Government are committed to transparency and effective scrutiny in our trade agenda, going beyond the statutory framework set out in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.

Answer from Nigel Huddleston

The Government are committed to transparency and effective scrutiny in our trade agenda, going beyond the statutory framework set out in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. That includes providing extensive information prior to the commencement of talks on free trade agreements, as well as regular updates to Parliament during negotiations. At the end of negotiations, we have committed to additional parliamentary scrutiny time, as well as to publishing further information such as the advice of the independent Trade and Agriculture Commission.

Answered
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Q2 Liz Twist Lab Blaydon and Consett
Business & Trade
Context

The question follows criticism from the former Environment Secretary, George Eustice, regarding the Government's free trade agreements.

Question

Over the last year, the Government's former Environment Secretary, the right hon. Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice), has labelled the Government free trade agreements a failure, and the Prime Minister has called them one-sided. Is such criticism the reason the Government spend so much time avoiding any real detailed scrutiny of these trade agreements?

Answer from Nigel Huddleston

I respectfully disagree with the hon. Lady's characterisation that there is insufficient scrutiny, and I respectfully disagree with my right hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (George Eustice), who made some comments earlier this year. Last time I answered this question, you quite rightly had a go at me, Mr Speaker, because I gave a long list of examples of extensive scrutiny on our free trade agreements.

Partly answered

Not addressed: The specific ask about whether criticism leads to avoidance was not directly addressed; instead, the response disagreed with the premise and referred back to previous answers.

How: Disagreement With Premise, Reference To Past Responses

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