Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of strengthening existing requirements under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 for parliamentary (a) scrutiny and (b) debate on international trade deals.

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act (CRaG) provides an effective and robust framework for scrutiny of treaties that require ratification, including free trade agreements.

Nevertheless, the Government has also in place a suite of enhanced transparency and scrutiny arrangements that go well beyond the statutory obligations of CRaG.

The Government recognises the importance of Parliament being able to consider new free trade agreements, therefore a debate was held in Government time on 14 November to consider the Australia and New Zealand deals.