Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Brexit

(asked on 4th January 2019) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of the additional staff required by his Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU (a) with and (b) without a deal.


Answered by
Alan Duncan Portrait
Alan Duncan
This question was answered on 14th January 2019

Using Her Majesty's Treasury EU Exit funding and a process of internal reprioritisation, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has created approximately 550 new roles in the UK and overseas to strengthen our diplomatic network in the UK and across Europe so that it is better able to represent and promote British interests and engage with our European partners in support of a successful EU Exit.

We do not want or expect a no deal outcome. However, a responsible government should prepare for all potential outcomes. We are continually reviewing our workforce plans and reprioritising and assessing changing needs, including identification and cessation of lower-priority work where appropriate.

The Civil Service as a whole is working to ensure that EU Exit Implementation is carried out to a high quality without impacting public service delivery across the whole of government.

Reticulating Splines