The UK government considered suspending its trade agreement with Israel and conducted an impact assessment on the possibility last summer, according to a report by Sky News.
According to the report, the Department for Business and Trade carried out the assessment in August 2025, examining the potential suspension of the UK-Israel Trade Partnership Agreement, the post-Brexit continuity arrangement signed in 2019 that grants Israeli imports preferential tariff treatment.
Impact assessments are understood to examine the economic and social effects of potential policy changes and are routinely used in trade policy. The report said the assessment was conducted as part of the UK's response to the Israeli government's actions in Gaza and Judea and Samaria.
The UK suspended negotiations on a new free trade agreement with Israel in May 2025. However, the existing UK-Israel Trade Partnership Agreement has remained in force.
Trade minister Chris Bryant said in the House of Commons in October that exports to Israel support thousands of jobs in the UK. In a written response, he also stated that suspending preferential trade treatment could risk significant economic disruption for British businesses.
Sky News reported that neither Parliament nor the public was informed that the government had carried out the assessment, and the government has not released its findings. When asked about the status of the agreement in Parliament, ministers did not disclose that suspension had been considered.
The existence of the assessment became public only after the Department for Business and Trade responded to a freedom of information request submitted by the UK-based campaign group Global Justice Now earlier this month.
The department withheld details regarding the scope of the assessment, when it was commissioned and completed, and any decisions that may have resulted from it.