Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Government’s command paper, Processes for making free trade agreements after the United Kingdom has left the European Union, CP 63, published in February 2019, whether the proposals in that paper remain Government policy.

This Government is committed to building a transparent trade policy, which is subject to robust and appropriate parliamentary scrutiny. We have made and fulfilled commitments to transparency, including publishing objectives and economic scoping assessments for our proposed Free Trade Agreements. These commitments are already being fulfilled as per the publication of our objectives for UK-US and UK-Japan negotiations on 2 March and 13 May respectively.

We have also committed to keeping Parliament and the public informed of progress on our negotiations via regular updates and to work closely with the appropriate scrutiny Committees in both Houses. At the end of negotiations, we will lay a final impact assessment prior to ratification under the statutory framework provided for by the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.