Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the validity of the findings of the Council of Europe Venice Commission Opinion on Constitutional Arrangements and Separation of Powers and the Independence of the Judiciary and Law Enforcement in Malta.

​I welcome the Government of Malta's engagement with rapporteurs from the Council of Europe's Venice Commission who visited Malta in November 2018, and Malta's acceptance of the Commission's findings. We encourage Prime Minister Muscat's Government to draw on the Venice Commission's offer of advice and expertise, as Europe's chief advisory body on constitutional law, to implement their recommendations. The UK stands ready to assist Malta to advance its law reform agenda in any way we can.