2a: PAC recommendation: The Department should develop a set of clear and measurable outcome-based metrics with targets for its programme of trade negotiations. 2.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 2.2 However, the department publishes detailed impact assessments that set out its expectations against a wide range of criteria of what the impact of FTAs will be. In addition, the department will publish monitoring reports which will provide DIT’s analytical evidence base to inform Parliament, the public and other interested stakeholders on progress and actual benefits. 2.3 DIT has committed, in its impact assessments for the UK-Japan CEPA, UK-Australia FTA, and UK-New Zealand FTA, to publishing a biennial FTA monitoring report. 2.4 DIT’s Outcome Delivery Plan (ODP) includes metrics for trade negotiations. DIT will report on progress against each of the ODPs and continue to keep its ODP metrics under review. 2.5 These reports will cover outcome-based monitoring indicators where available. These include changes in trade flows and measures of the utilisation of the agreements. Where possible, they will also discuss the extent to which short term changes can be attributed to the FTA itself rather than wider factors. 2b: PAC recommendation: The Department should commit to regular reporting of progress to Parliament, including actual benefits and value achieved versus initial forecasts. 2.6 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: From April 2023 2.7 The department will regularly report on FTA implementation to parliament. 2.8 In DIT’s impact assessments for the UK-Japan CEPA, and the UK-Australia and UK-New Zealand FTAs, the Department committed to publishing a biennial FTA monitoring report, which will provide DIT’s analytical evidence base to inform Parliament, the public and other interested stakeholders on progress and actual benefits. 2.9 Publishing a biennial report every two years strikes the right balance between timeliness of reporting and allowing sufficient time to show emerging trends. 2.10 These reports will cover key monitoring indicators where available. These include changes in trade flows and measures of the utilisation of the agreements. Where possible, they will also discuss the extent to which short term changes can be attributed to the FTA itself rather than wider factors. 2.11 The department is also committed to publishing a comprehensive ex-post evaluation report for the UK-Japan CEPA, the UK-Australia FTA and UK-New Zealand FTA within 5 years of these agreements entering into force. These evaluation reports will aim to show how, why and for whom the agreements and their implementation have generated outcomes. 2.12 DIT modelling estimates in the impact assessments are not forecasts. DIT intends to deploy a mixed methods analytical approach that aims to make best use of a range of quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques for ex-post evaluation. 2.13 Recent plans, for the UK-Australia FTA, were welcomed by the independent Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC). The RPC stated that the monitoring and evaluation (M&E) proposal was of good quality and considered it critical to understanding the FTA’s true long-term effects.