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 effect of increasing the transition period after the UK leaves the EU on the UK's ability to negotiate preferential trade agreements with third countries.

As the Prime Minister has made clear, we expect the implementation period to end, as planned, in December 2020.

The idea to create an option - and it would only be an option - to extend the implementation period for a matter of months would simply provide an "insurance policy" in the extremely unlikely event that no agreement on our future partnership is agreed by December 2020.

It should be noted that during this period we will be free to negotiate, sign and ratify new trade agreements with third countries.