NHS Trade Agreement

Dear constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about trade agreements and the NHS.

I agree with you on this important issue. Good trade deals are vital for our economy, but they must not come at the cost of our ability to protect the NHS from marketisation. With the disruption to our trade following the end of the transition period with the EU, however, I worry that the Government will be desperate to do trade deals with other countries at any price. While it has said that the NHS is off the table in trade deals, it has also repeatedly rejected the opportunity to make good on these statements by putting protections for the NHS into legislation through the Trade Bill. I therefore appreciate your concerns.

As you know, I supported an Opposition amendment to the Trade Bill in July last year that would have stated explicitly that the NHS would be exempt from the provisions of future trade agreements. Unfortunately, Government MPs voted down this amendment.

When the House of Lords returned the Trade Bill to the House of Commons on 19 January with an amendment to protect the NHS and care, including health and care data, from control from outside the UK through trade agreements, I again supported this amendment. Unfortunately, the Government once more opposed and defeated it. This means there is now no legal safety net preventing this or any future Government from including the NHS – whether intentionally or inadvertently – in its trade deals.

If the NHS is not specifically protected from trade deals in legislation, it is of even greater importance that Parliament is able to properly scrutinise agreements the Government negotiates. It is therefore extremely disappointing that the Government has also again rejected amendments to the Trade Bill that would provide for parliamentary scrutiny and approval of trade deals. I welcome that the House of Lords has again voted for an amendment to give Parliament a say over trade agreements and can assure you that I will look closely at this further amendment when the Trade Bill returns once more to the House of Commons.

Thank you once again for contacting me. I can assure you that I will continue to do all I can to prevent our NHS and public services from being put at risk through trade deals.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP