Ahead of publication of UK's objectives for its future relationship #negotiations with the EU, & of normal Thurs @HouseofCommons #BusinessQuestions this AM, a quick thread on some aspects of where we are on #Parliament side of things. 1/
1st, remember that, 'cos of way UK does treaties, gov is under no obligation to publish what it's publishing today. UK gov is under no obligation to tell Parl anything about treaties it's negotiating unless & until they need domestic implementing legislation +/or ratification. 2/
So, fact that gov is publishing a paper today, & doing so accompanied by both a written & oral statement to Parl, is good. It continues longstanding practice of UK gov publishing some kind of doc before start of negs with (pre-Brexit, the rest of) the EU. But... 3/
... But. The gov is publishing its negotiating objectives 1 HoC sitting day before i) the negs start & ii) HoC is due to approve membership of most of its select c'tees, incl. those that will be most directly engaged with the negs. And today sees a statement, not a debate. 4/
So parly scrutiny before the negs start will be minimal. With respect to new FTAs with non-EU partners, previous Trade Sec Liam Fox raised prospect of at least a general debate at this stage of the process (ie a debate on a motion that doesn't express an opinion). 5/ 
After Johnson gov removed parly scrutiny provisions from v2 of #WithdrawalAgreementBill, there's been no such provision for a debate at start of negs with EU. So 1 Q today is whether gov will schedule such a debate (even tho' it'll be too late for the start of negs). 6/
2nd, fact it's Gove making today's statement confirms he's ministerial lead for negs. Much still to be clarified re: how often he'll make statements to HoC; what info gov provides to who in Parl, when & on what terms; & who (Gove/Frost) will appear before which select c'tees. 7/
Here's the relevant bit re: FTA negs with non-EU partners from the DIT's Feb 2019 paper on this process, still the fullest gov statement on it: 8/
Qs would be i) does this still hold for negs with non-EU FTA partners? (relevant for imminent (?) FTA negs with US; & ii) if yes, but gov proposes it won't apply to negs with EU, why not? (esp. given gov wants 'standard' FTA with EU the same as with other countries). 9/
3rd, while it's good most HoC select c'tees will be set up Mon (taking the longest in sitting-day terms, by 1 sitting day, since current system started 2010), Liaison C'tee & HoC bit of Joint C'tee on National Security Strategy not included. When are those coming? /ends for now
