Commons briefing examines how Parliament scrutinises international treaties

Article summary

The House of Commons Library has published a briefing on Parliament’s role in scrutinising and ratifying international treaties. International treaties are an increasing part of UK government activity, particularly in areas such as trade and fisheries, which were handled by the EU before Brexit. According to the briefing, despite Parliament’s efforts to increase committees’ treaty scrutiny and some commitments by the government to support scrutiny of trade treaties, treaty scrutiny remains ‘under-developed and under-resourced’ with Parliament’s formal involvement still limited.