Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for European Union Exit preparations so far.

£21.1 million was allocated to the Department of Health and Social Care preparations for EU Exit in 2018/19, including planning for the United Kingdom leaving the EU without a deal. Spend against this allocation will be included in the 2018/19 financial accounts in due course.

Preparations for the United Kingdom’s departure from the EU will continue through 2019/20 and £50 million of additional funding from HM Treasury has been made available for this purpose, as set out in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement (HCWS1205) laid before Parliament on 18 December 2018.

This Government funding is to cover all exit scenarios and is in addition to departmental efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU.

The Department is preparing for all eventualities and we will continue to review resources required as events develop. We will seek to mitigate costs to the taxpayer wherever possible.