The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 26th January 2023:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether the procedure and available time for the ratification of the Australia and New Zealand free trade agreement allows for sufficient parliamentary scrutiny.
Lord Johnson of Lainston (Con): The Government has committed to additional measures for new free trade agreements which go beyond our statutory scrutiny requirements.
The Australia and New Zealand agreements were made available for scrutiny for an additional six months before commencement of the statutory period under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRaG). We have made additional reporting commitments to support scrutiny, including publishing the advice of the independent Trade and Agriculture Commission.
The Trade (Australian and New Zealand) Bill is currently being scrutinised by Parliament. The agreements cannot be brought into force until the legislation has been passed by Parliament.
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to conduct an economic impact assessment on the free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand.
Lord Johnson of Lainston: The Department’s impact assessments of the UK-Australia and UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreements were published on 17th December 2021 and 28th February 2022 respectively.
The full impact assessments are available on gov.uk.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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