Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how much funding from the public purse has been allocated to his Department for financial year 2018-19 for planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how much of that funding has been spent.
Answered by George Hollingbery
HM Treasury has already allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced at Autumn Budget 2017 for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this was allocated to departments 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/). This money will be paid out in Supplementary Estimates 18/19 later this financial year.
The Department for International Trade integrates its scenario planning for EU exit into our overall programmes of work. ‘No deal’ planning is not undertaken by a distinct team and it is therefore not possible to separately identify the spend associated with the UK leaving the EU without a deal.