UK International Agreements Database, 2017-2024

Under the terms of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRaG Act) treaties signed by the UK government must be laid before the UK parliament for at least 21 parliamentary sitting days prior to that treaty being ratified. Although the efficacy of the system has been questioned this requirement is intended to enable parliamentary scrutiny of UK international agreements, including trade agreements. Treaties laid under the CRaG Act are specifically scrutinised by the House of Lords (HL) International Agreements Committee which maintain an online public record of these agreements. This ‘Treaty Tracker’ provided the starting point for data collection in the first phase of the research; each international agreement listed on the HL Treaty Tracker was cross-referenced with the legal texts, explanatory memoranda and parliamentary reports published by the UK government (as per CRaG Act requirements) on the gov.uk website to develop a comprehensive collection of official texts on post-Brexit UK treaties. The CRaG Act defines ‘treaties’ as written agreements that are between States or between States and international organisations and which are binding in international law; given the data collection followed from the terms of the CRaG Act, non-binding legal instruments are therefore not included in the analysis. Based on the texts gathered, a database of international agreements laid before parliament between mid-2017 and end-2024 has been developed which brings together data points from a range of different official sources on each of the over 200 international agreements it features.

Focusing on the interaction between the agreements and devolution, the database records descriptive details on the treaties (i.e., title, date of signature, date laid in parliament, date of entry into force, command paper reference, subject matter, legislative implementation, and lead UKG department) then provides a high-level (‘yes’ or ‘no’) assessment of whether or not provisions in the treaty overlap with areas of devolved competence in one or more devolved territory and notes which policy areas are affected, where overlaps exist. The database also notes the nature of consultation carried out with devolved representatives, as reported by the central UK government, where this has taken place. Content for this section is taken from UK government explanatory memoranda, the template for which includes a sub-heading on consultation.

The Data Collection is available to any user without the requirement for registration for download/access.