Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what assessment he has made of the importance of regulatory alignment to the EU after the UK leaves the EU.

In our negotiations with the EU, the UK will seek to secure a new, deep and special partnership. We propose the greatest possible tariff- and barrier-free trade with our European neighbours based on our rules and regulations being the same at the start, and on maintaining our commitment to free trade and high standards.

But there will be areas that affect our economic relations where we and our European friends may have different goals; or where we share the same goals but want to achieve them through different means. This is where we recognise that the single market is built on a balance of rights and obligations, and so our task is to find a new framework that allows for a close economic partnership but holds those rights and obligations in a new and different balance.