Sir William Cash MP, Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee, has written to the Prime Minister summarising the committee’s concerns about the provisions of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill giving the UK courts a power to disapply pre-exit UK primary legislation.  The full text of his letter is here.

Professor Derrick Wyatt QC

The lack of adequate Parliamentary scrutiny when the UK negotiates trade agreements (something it has not done in its own right for many years) has come to the attention of the House of Commons International Trade Committee. This is timely given the prospect of the UK negotiating the single most important trade agreement it is likely to negotiate for a long time – its future trade agreement with the EU. The context for the Committee’s concern is its inquiry into the Trade Bill. One of the issues which the Bill addresses is the domestic implementation in the UK of those EU trade agreements which are adapted for continued application by the UK after Brexit. The Committee has asked whether Parliamentary scrutiny of ministerial rules implementing these agreements is adequate, and, more broadly, whether scrutiny of the UK signing up to these and other trade agreements, is adequate. Continue reading →