Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the statement by the former Energy Minister in the press release published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy entitled UK strengthens protections for taxpayers in energy treaty negotiations on 24 June 2022, what assessment she has made of the potential risk to taxpayers of legal challenges made through other investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms.

The UK has investment agreements with ISDS provisions with over 90 trading partners, including within the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT). There has never been a successful ISDS claim brought against the UK, nor has the threat of potential claims affected the Government’s legislative programme.