In November 2022 we made the decision to add business steps about a treaty that occurred before a treaty is signed or laid before Parliament.
The government has precedent for engaging with Parliament via ministerial statements during the negotiation stage of a treaty or at the point a treaty has been signed but the treaty has not been laid before Parliament under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. Committees can also open inquiries and take evidence on a treaty before it’s laid as well.
The following queries detail all pre-laying business on treaties since June 2017.
Ministers can make many different statements to the House before a treaty is laid. The primary purpose is to keep the House informed about how negotiations are proceeding. Statements are also a useful way of keeping interested committees up to date and to give them an indication on what scrutiny may be required.
All ministerial statements in the House of Commons before treaty laid
All ministerial statements in the House of Lords before treaty laid
This query show the Commons statements
This query show the Commons statements
This query show the Commons statements
This query show the Commons statements
This query show the Commons statements
The Government can choose to publish a comprehensive set of documents setting out the UK’s strategic approach to free trade agreements with other partieis. Usually, in line with the government’s commitment to scrutiny and transparency, they will deposit these documents in both House libraries as well as on gov.uk.
As part of the International Agreements Committee’s inquiry into a potential treaty, they may wish to publish a report scrutinising the government’s negotiation objectives. The government may then follow up with a response to such a report. The following query shows all scrutiny reports and where the government has responded.
Before the ITC was dissolved in April 2023, it published two scrutiny reports on the government’s negotiation objectives for a free trade agreement with India and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The Government may choose to open a consultation into a future trade agreement. The consultations usually seek input on which aspects of current trading arrangements should be improved or amended.
Informational copies of treaties made be laid in both Houses at the point the treaty is signed. The purpose of this is to allow parliamentary scrutiny to begin, particularly for the benefit of committee inquiries and evidence sessions. As the copies are informational it means that CRaG is not yet invoked so the objection period has not yet started.
The Trade and Agriculture Commission’s purpose is to provide advice under section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020 (see below). In preparing a report relating to free trade agreements under that section, the Secretary of State must request advice from the Commission and lay before Parliament any such advice received in response to said requests. Generally, the advice should be published before any report but there has been one instance where the report was laid first. The Trade and Agriculture Commission’s role is outlined under Part 3 of the Trade Act 2021.
Under section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2020, a free trade agreement that includes measures applicable to trade in agricultural products may not be laid before Parliament under Part 2 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 unless the Secretary of State has first laid a report before Parliament. The report must explain whether, or to what extent, the measures are consistent with the maintenance of UK levels of statutory protection in relation to — (a) human, animal or plant life or health, (b) animal welfare, and (c) the environment.
We have seen one oral question in the House of Lords about treaty negotiations as of June 2023. The oral question was asking about the progress of three FTAs.