REPORT SUMMARY
Departments face an unprecedented challenge in preparing for the
UK’s exit from the European Union, especially with the continuing
political uncertainty over the final outcome.
Despite raising our concerns throughout 2018, departments have
continued to struggle to prepare should the UK leave the EU
without a deal. We are disappointed to see that some of our early
concerns have now been realised.
The Department for Transport has failed to make timely
preparations to procure the additional freight capacity needed to
transport critical goods. Despite being aware that the
ferry industry would need time to put in place additional
capacity, the Department did not start serious preparations to
procure this additional capacity until September 2018, just six
months before the UK is due to leave the EU.
The Department’s procurement approach has been rushed and risky
and preparations have been conducted in secrecy with inadequate
stakeholder engagement.
Our inquiry has thrown up that the Department did not have any
written assurance that Seaborne Freight had a shipping partner
until after the contract was agreed and then signed.
The Department for Transport has been also over-optimistic about
how much capacity it could secure and has ultimately failed to
deliver the freight capacity it required. This was in part
because of the late decision to procure the capacity and the
unusual and secretive approach to procurement.
Time has now run out to procure significant additional capacity
by other means. This has implications for securing the flow of
priority goods.
While the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
asserts that the impact on food supplies will not lead to
shortages, we are concerned this is another example of
over-optimism.
We are unconvinced that the departments are prepared for the
practical challenges that no deal would bring, particularly in
managing the flow of priority goods.
COMMENT FROM PAC CHAIR MEG HILLIER MP
“My Committee’s work in this Parliament has laid bare the
struggles Government departments have faced in preparing for a
potential no-deal Brexit.
“It is critical that the approach to decision-taking adopted in
response to what are unprecedented challenges does not embed
itself as the ‘new normal’.
“Taxpayers’ money must not be risked by business-as-usual done on
the fly. Nor should transparency be sacrificed at the whim of
Government.
“The use of confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements during
Brexit preparations has come at the expense of proper engagement
with stakeholders, and deprived Parliament and the public of
information they need to hold Government to account.
“It is not clear, for example, what benefits the Government’s £33
million settlement with Eurotunnel will secure for the UK.
“Nor is it clear over what timescale the benefits will be
delivered, how they will be measured, or if the Government tested
whether settling with Eurotunnel was the best method of securing
them.
“This is not a sustainable approach. In the event of Brexit, and
the longer-term challenges this presents, it is vital that
taxpayers can have confidence their money is being spent wisely
and with due consideration for the risks involved.
“Whatever the outcome of the Brexit process, the Whitehall
machinery must reflect on the activity of recent months and years
and use what it has learned to drive real improvements.”
