Martyn Day – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Martyn Day on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment the Prime Minister has made of the potential effect of the investor state dispute settlement clause of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership on public services managed by the Scottish government.

Anna Soubry

The inclusion of investment protections and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) should not affect how public services are provided in Scotland or the rest of the UK. Investment protection seeks to protect businesses and individuals who have made investments overseas from unfair or discriminatory treatment and ISDS is about providing an independent legal means to resolve disputes which have arisen under the treaty. The proposals cannot force governments to open markets or privatise public services.

The UK has bilateral investment agreements with over 90 countries which contain ISDS provisions and there has never been a successful claim brought against the UK.