Cross-border legal practice rights should be safeguarded in Brexit negotiations the Commons Justice Committee has said.

In its report Implications of Brexit for the Justice System, the committee states that the legal services sector underpins many areas of UK economic activity, concluding that its ability to continue to facilitate these in the EU will diminish without protection of existing practising rights for UK lawyers.

It adds that there is also clear evidence of reciprocal benefit. The report recommends that the government include achieving this protection in its Brexit negotiating strategy.

The report also recommends that the government:

The committee believes that overall the implications of Brexit for the legal services sector give cause for concern, but not hyperbole: most of the sector’s strengths are unabated, and sensible discussions between the UK and EU ought to protect many of the advantages of their existing cooperation.

However, the report recommends that the government should consider and promote the legal services sector in the context of its expected post-Brexit trade recalibration and the pursuit of new deals; it should outline steps it will take to protect and provide opportunities for the sector.

Committee chair, Bob Neill MP, said: “The UK’s legal services sector makes a £25.7 billion annual economic contribution. It relies on openness, and its lawyers’ current rights to practice across EU member states help small businesses and ordinary people as well as large firms and wealthy individuals.

“We recommend that the government protect these powers. It should also outline steps it will take to provide opportunities for the sector more broadly—with concerted efforts by EU law firms to use Brexit to win clients from UK competitors—though we have faith in UK legal services’ fundamental strengths.”