Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate her Department has made of the financial contribution to the UK economy of law firms based elsewhere in the EU and operating in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

English law has had a huge impact, spreading the rule of law around the world. It is the law of choice in over a quarter of jurisdictions. We will be championing our £25 billion legal services industry as a key part of post-Brexit global Britain.

We are not aware of any reports that include aggregate data on the contribution that international, including EU, firms make to the UK economy. It may also be the case that firms do not separate out their UK income from their wider income, especially where they operate in a number of jurisdictions, or where work is spread across jurisdictions or provided across borders.

English common law is the preferred choice for international commercial contracts, and English law governs about 40 per cent of all global corporate arbitrations.