Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to his article in The Times of 9 January 2018, which the 14 trade working groups across 21 countries are; how much funding the Government provides to each of those working groups; and for what reason no details will be made available to Parliament on the meetings of those groups.

The Government has announced 14 trade working groups across 21 countries to explore the best ways of progressing our trade and investment relationships, details of which have been made public. These form part of the daily work of the teams that run them and are not accounted for separately.

We will work with Parliament and stakeholders to identify the vital role they will play in scrutinising, implementing and ratifying the UK’s future trade agreements. We will return to Parliament with proposals in due course.