Examination of Witnesses

Part of Trade Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 2:01 pm on 23 January 2018.

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Photo of Tom Pursglove Tom Pursglove Conservative, Corby 2:01, 23 January 2018

Quite a bit has been said, not just in this sitting but in the sitting earlier today, on the issue of checks and balances, and scrutiny. Would the witnesses accept that all of these agreements initially, when they were brought into being in the first place, went through an impact assessment process and that, on ratification, they were scrutinised thoroughly by the scrutiny Committees in both Houses? Also, the 2010 CRAG process—under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010—allows Parliament to pray against a treaty and indefinitely deny ratification, including bringing it to a debate. Do the witnesses recognise that and think it is sufficientQ ?