Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many officials in his Department have been seconded away from their normal duties to work on the UK's withdrawal from the EU; and what effect that secondment of staff has had on the effectiveness of his Department.

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.

39 Ministry of Justice staff were seconded to work in other departments from December 2018 as part of the no-deal preparations co-ordinated by Cabinet Office. 34 staff have since returned, with extensions agreed for the remaining 5 staff.

Between January and April 2019, 62 Ministry of Justice staff volunteered to work in the MoJ Departmental Operations Centre (DOC) to assist with no deal preparations. These volunteers worked a small number of shifts in the DOC and were chosen from different teams across the department to minimise any disruption to business as usual work.