Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Brexit

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much money his Department has allocated for preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal to date; how much of that funding has been made by way of ministerial direction; and for what functions that funding has been allocated.

Answer

HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:

• £412m of additional funding over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office at Autumn Statement 2016.

• £286m of additional funding for 17/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 17/18: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679738/PU2137_Supplementary_estimates_web.pdf.)

• Over £1.5bn of additional funding for 18/19. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March.(https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/)

• Over £2bn of additional funding for 19/20. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS1205, laid on the 18th December.(https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-12-18/HCWS1205/)

In addition to this funding, Defra has redirected staff from its business as usual functions to prepare for our departure from the EU. These preparations cover Defra’s full range of responsibilities and are in readiness for all scenarios including preparations for leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement.

There were seven ministerial directions across Government between 2016 and 2019, of which four were in relation to EU Exit Costs. On 19 January 2018 Defra published details on GOV.UK of a Ministerial Direction authorising spending of up to £16m for EU Exit preparedness work in advance of Royal Assent of the EU (Withdrawal) Bill (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-exit-preparations-ministerial-direction).