Conclusion 4

We would not normally expect to conduct detailed textual scrutiny of signed agreements, although we would welcome written submissions drawing attention to possible flaws or inherent risks in agreed texts. Our focus would instead be on whether any concerns which we might have raised in a report on negotiating objectives had been addressed. If they had not, and if we considered those concerns to be so severe that the agreement ought not to be ratified, we would make that recommendation in a further report to the House and would ask the Government to make time for a debate on a substantive motion during the CRaG period. There may be other circumstances in which we would press for a debate on an agreement during the CRaG period. In most such cases, we would expect a debate to take place on a neutral motion.