Asked by: Lord Browne of Ladyton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to assess whether current investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms within treaties to which the UK is a signatory have produced outcomes that are in the UK’s national interest.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The UK is party to over 80 Bilateral Investment Treaties and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which contain investment protection and Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions.
The UK is a significant capital exporter and investment protection provisions backed by ISDS provide UK investors with legal protection against arbitrary, discriminatory or unfair treatment and expropriation without compensation. ISDS provides a framework to resolve disputes with host governments through independent arbitration.