Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff were recruited by her Department in the last twelve months to work on preparations for the UK leaving the EU; and what the Border Force budget has been for (a) additional permanent staff members and (b) agency workers in each financial year since 2015-16.

The department has been continually assessing the resourcing levels required to prepare for EU Exit across all possible scenarios, developing contingency plans in line with government policy. It is not possible to provide the number of staff who have been recruited to work on preparations for the UK leaving the EU as staff are generally engaged across a range of workstreams, which will include business as usual activity as well as EU Exit preparations, across all scenarios.

Over the last 12 months the department has adapted to the different scenarios in preparation for the UK leaving the EU and our staffing numbers have fluctuated to meet these demands.

The latest published staffing and finance figures for Border Force can be found in the Home Office Annual Report for 2018-2019 on page 85 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2018-to-2019

The previous published staffing and financial figures for Border Force since 2015 to 2018 can be found at the following links:

2015-2016: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2015-to-2016

2016-2017: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2016-to-2017

2017-2018: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2017-to-2018

2018-2019: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/home-office-annual-report-and-accounts-2018-to-2019

Excluding EU Exit, Border Force’s gross resource budget for 2019-20 is £488m. This includes an income target of £19m, which means a net allocation of £469m.

Border Force has received a total of c.£182m for EU Exit preparations in 2019/20. (£141m Resource and £41M Capital)

Border Force originally received funding, based on a Deal, of £100m; this funding was to fund recruitment for full customs compliance by the end of 2020. The recruitment and training for this uplift of permanent staff has completed bringing the Border Force FTE to over 8,700 from 7,700 in March 2018.

The additional £41m Resource funding provided throughout 2019-20 enabled further recruitment with Border Force expecting to reach c9,300 FTE by March 2020.

Border Force received a total £82.1m for EU Exit preparations in 2018/19 (£72.1m Resource and £10m Capital)

Border Force received a total of £3.2m for EU Exit preparations in 2017/18 (£1.7m Resource and £1.5m Capital)

Budgets for 20-21 cannot be confirmed as they remain subject to final confirmation.