canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/parliament.uk/treaties

# UK Parliament Treaties API

Jentic publishes the only agent-ready OpenAPI specification for the UK Parliament Treaties API, keeping it validated and up to date. The API exposes details of international treaties laid before Parliament under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRaG), including treaty titles, laying dates, parliamentary scrutiny periods, and committee reports. It powers foreign policy research platforms, legal compliance systems, and parliamentary oversight tools monitoring the UK's international commitments.

## For AI agents

Query international treaties laid before Parliament, track CRaG scrutiny periods, and retrieve committee reports across 6 endpoints.

## Scope

Covers parliamentary scrutiny of international treaties under CRaG, including laying, scrutiny periods, and committee reports. Does not include full treaty text or international law analysis - use treaty registries or government publications for full text. Does not cover treaties that predate CRaG (2010).

## Capabilities

- Search for treaties by title, command paper number, or subject
- Retrieve details of a specific treaty by ID
- List treaties by laid date or parliamentary session
- Track CRaG scrutiny period status and deadlines
- Access parliamentary committee reports on treaties
- Query treaties by government department or subject area
- Monitor treaty ratification timelines and extensions

## Use cases

### Treaty Ratification Monitoring

Track international treaties as they progress through the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRaG) scrutiny process. GET `/api/Treaties/Search` returns treaties laid before Parliament, while GET `/api/Treaties/{id}` provides full details including CRaG period deadlines and ratification status. Essential for foreign policy analysts and legal teams monitoring UK treaty commitments.

Example prompt: GET `/api/Treaties/Search`?session=2025-26 to list all treaties laid in the current parliamentary session

### Committee Scrutiny and Reports

Access parliamentary committee reports and recommendations on treaties under scrutiny. GET `/api/Treaties/{id}/CommitteeReports` returns reports from relevant select committees examining treaty implications. Supports parliamentary researchers and policy analysts evaluating treaty scrutiny quality.

Example prompt: GET `/api/Treaties/{id}`, then GET `/api/Treaties/{id}/CommitteeReports` to retrieve scrutiny reports and recommendations

### Subject and Department Filtering

Filter treaties by subject area or government department to track international agreements in specific policy domains. Search by department (Foreign Office, Trade Department) or subject (trade, defense, environment) to retrieve relevant treaties. Useful for sector-specific monitoring.

Example prompt: GET `/api/Treaties/Search`?department=Foreign Office&subject=trade to list trade-related treaties laid by FCO

### AI-Powered Foreign Policy Research via Jentic

An AI agent researching UK foreign policy can search for treaties by subject, track CRaG scrutiny deadlines, and retrieve committee reports through Jentic without managing complex filtering or parsing nested treaty data. Jentic resolves intents like 'find trade treaties laid this year' to the correct endpoints.

Example prompt: Search Jentic for 'find treaties by subject', load GET `/api/Treaties/Search` schema with subject filter, and execute

## Key endpoints

| Method | Path | Description |
| --- | --- | --- |
| GET | `/api/Treaties/Search` | Search for treaties by various criteria |
| GET | `/api/Treaties/{id}` | Retrieve detailed information about a specific treaty |
| GET | `/api/Treaties/{id}/CommitteeReports` | Get parliamentary committee reports on a treaty |
| GET | `/api/Treaties/List` | List all treaties with filtering and pagination |

## Key resources

- **Treaties** — International treaty details including title, command paper, laid date, and CRaG status
- **Committee Reports** — Parliamentary select committee reports and recommendations on treaties
- **CRaG Scrutiny** — Constitutional Reform and Governance Act scrutiny periods and deadlines
- **Government Departments** — Departments responsible for laying treaties before Parliament

## Why Jentic

- **Setup:** Wiring the UK Parliament Treaties API by hand means learning its search and list conventions, handling pagination across CRaG scrutiny records, and parsing nested committee-report data yourself. Through Jentic you install once, import the Treaties API from the API Directory, and your agent calls it with no credential to manage since it is open-access.
- **Permission scoping:** This API is read-only over public treaty scrutiny data, so you limit the agent to the operations it needs, such as searching treaties or fetching one treaty and its committee reports by id. Every operation is a GET, so nothing it can call writes or changes parliamentary records.
- **Credential handling:** The Treaties API is open-access and needs no credential, so there is no key to store. If you later front it with a gateway token, that token is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance, injected at execution time, and never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
- **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'find trade treaties under scrutiny' or 'check a treaty CRaG period', and Jentic returns the matching Treaties operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs.

## Related APIs

- **UK Parliament Statutory Instruments API** — Secondary legislation laid before Parliament with scrutiny status
- **UK Parliament Bills API** — Legislative bills and amendments tracking across parliamentary sessions
- **UK Parliament Members API** — MPs and Lords biographical data, voting records, and parliamentary roles

## FAQ

### What is CRaG and how does it relate to treaty scrutiny?

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRaG) requires the government to lay treaties before Parliament for 21 sitting days before ratification. During this period, either House can vote to reject ratification. The API tracks CRaG scrutiny periods, deadlines, and parliamentary objections.

### Can I filter treaties by government department?

Yes. Use GET `/api/Treaties/Search` with department parameters to filter treaties by the responsible government department (typically the Foreign Office, but also Trade, Defense, or other departments depending on treaty subject). This helps track departmental treaty activity.

### How do I find treaties related to a specific policy area?

Use the subject filter in GET `/api/Treaties/Search` to retrieve treaties in specific policy areas such as trade, defense, environment, or human rights. The API categorizes treaties by subject to support policy-focused research.

### What is a command paper number?

A command paper is a document laid before Parliament by a minister, including treaty texts. Command papers have unique reference numbers (e.g., Cm 1234) used to identify treaties. The API allows searching by command paper number.

### Is authentication required for this API?

No. The UK Parliament Treaties API is a public API with no authentication required. It provides open access to treaty data for research, policy analysis, and monitoring purposes.

### Where does Jentic's OpenAPI spec for this API come from?

Jentic imports and validates the official Swagger spec published by UK Parliament at https://treaties-api.parliament.uk/swagger/v1/swagger.json, converts it to OpenAPI 3.0.3, and keeps it updated so AI agents and developers can call the API via structured tooling.

### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the UK Parliament Treaties API?

Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which operations the agent may call, so you can grant it just the ones it needs, such as searching treaties with GET `/api/Treaties/Search` or fetching a single treaty and its committee reports by id with GET `/api/Treaties/{id}` and GET `/api/Treaties/{id}/CommitteeReports.` Every operation on this API is a read-only GET, so nothing the agent calls can write to or change parliamentary records. The API is open-access with no credential to manage, and you keep the agent scoped to only the treaty-scrutiny lookups you intend it to perform.