Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many staff her Department has appointed to prepare for contingency plans in the event that the UK leaves the EU; and what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of those contingency plans.

DFID’s assessment is that we would not require any additional staff in the event that the UK leaves the EU. DFID is currently working with the Cabinet Office to understand the needs of other government departments for short term support and will seek to match these to DFID resource identified as being available for redeployment.