Nicholas Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what representations he has made to the negotiating bodies on ensuring the Government retains its ability to make public policy decisions in the public interest under investor state dispute settlement mechanisms.

Anna Soubry

The Government believes that investment protection treaties should not undermine the ability of states to make public policy decisions in the public interest. The European Union (EU) has competence to negotiate investment treaties on behalf of the EU and its Member States. The European Commission’s policy is that investment protection provisions should ensure a high level of protection for investors while fully preserving the right of governments to regulate and pursue legitimate public policy objectives, such as the protection of health, safety, or the environment, and has sought negotiating mandates from the Council of Ministers on this basis. The UK fully supports this approach, which has been adopted in recently negotiated Free Trade Agreements, such as the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.