Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what the timeframe is for the publication of all the reports on the effect on the UK of leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
We firmly believe it is in the interests of both the EU and the UK to strike a deal. That remains the goal on both sides and we are confident that this will be achieved. But it is the job of a responsible Government to prepare for all scenarios, including the unlikely event that we reach March 2019 without agreeing a deal.
We have already carried out very significant ‘no deal’ preparations and on 23 August we published 25 technical notices, intended to inform people, businesses and stakeholders about steps they may need to take in the event of a ‘no deal’ scenario. These were the first in a series of updates which we will be publishing over the coming weeks.
This does not reflect an increased likelihood of ‘no deal;’ an acceleration at this point was long-planned to ensure plans are in place by March 2019 in the unlikely scenario they are needed. We are confident that we will deliver a good deal that Parliament will want to support and when we bring forward the vote on the final deal we will ensure that Parliament is presented with the appropriate analysis.