Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many new staff members his Department plans to recruit for the purpose of contingency planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Departments continually review workforce plans, reprioritise and assess changing needs, which includes identification and cessation of non-priority work where appropriate. We have accelerated our plans, and at the same time, the Civil Service as a whole is working to ensure that EU Exit Implementation is carried out to high quality without impacting public service delivery across the whole of government. The Cabinet Office has staff working on EU exit implementation for a range of scenarios in the interests of preparedness, however the percentage of time spent on exiting the EU without a deal is not recorded or easily accessible.

Cabinet Office are currently looking to increase the numbers of staff trained to be part of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat to form a flexible pool to be used if and when required. This work is ongoing and the number of staff who will be part of this work is not yet available.