Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the free trade agreement with the Maldives will include specific provisions that prioritise tuna caught by low impact methods over industrially caught tuna.
The previous Government, of which the noble lord was a member, launched a public consultation into a potential UK/Maldives FTA in 2023. The Department for Business and Trade has subsequently evaluated its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) programme and decided not to progress a UK-Maldives FTA at this time. It would be inappropriate to speculate on what might or might not be included in an FTA which we are not pursuing.