Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of undertaking gender-based impact assessments (a) prior to and (b) after the enforcement of free trade agreements.

The UK is committed to promoting gender equality in the UK and around the world.

The Department for International Trade has set out its intention to publish scoping assessments for new free trade agreements, prior to negotiations commencing. The scoping assessment will provide preliminary assessments of the potential implications for different groups of the labour market. Specifically it will assess whether there are any disproportionate impacts on groups with protected characteristics. Such assessments will continue to inform the implementation of agreements.