Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with each EU member state regarding the impact on UK and EU trade of a no deal Brexit scenario in relation to cross border insolvency.

The Government has engaged with the EU and Member States on the importance of continued cooperation in respect of civil judicial matters, including cross-border insolvency. In doing so we have highlighted the role that civil judicial cooperation plays in enabling businesses to trade with confidence across borders, providing legal certainty in cross-border transactions and avoiding delays and excessive costs.

The Government has therefore made clear that an effective framework of civil judicial cooperation is an important part of the deep and special partnership we want to establish with the EU on exit, and is in the best interests of both the UK and the EU. This ambition was set out in the Government’s position paper on Civil Judicial Cooperation, “Providing a cross-border civil judicial cooperation framework”, issued on 22 August 2017, and confirmed in the White Paper “The future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union” published on 12 July 2018.