Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the Trade (Australia and New Zealand) Bill on her timetable for ratifying the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement.

The Government has been clear that the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement will be ratified once it has completed formal scrutiny under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 and all necessarily domestic legislative changes have been made.

The Trade (Australia and New Zealand) Bill will allow for changes to domestic primary legislation to implement the Procurement chapters of the Australia and New Zealand agreements. The Bill was introduced in May and is awaiting a date for Second Reading. The agreement cannot be ratified until the Bill has received Royal Assent and all required secondary legislation has been passed.