Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many civil servants in his Department are currently working on planning for the UK leaving the EU without a deal; and how many have been moved from other projects to work on those plans.

A central team within the Global and Public Health Directorate of the Department coordinates the provision of advice to Ministers on all European Union exit and exit-related issues, including no deal scenarios. Additional EU exit-related workstreams are being taken forward in other parts of the department. It is not possible to break down the proportion of overall time spent within these teams on no deal scenarios specifically.

On 18 December 2018, the Cabinet agreed to proceed with the Government’s next phase of no deal planning. Preparing for no deal is now an operational priority for the Government. 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 a high standard without impacting public service delivery across the whole of Government.