Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 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 exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:

• £412 million of additional funding over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the Autumn Statement 2016

• £286 million of additional funding for 2017/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 2017/18). (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679738/PU2137_Supplementary_estimates_web.pdf)
  
• Over £1.5 billion of additional funding for 2018/19. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on 13 March 2018. (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/)
  
• Over £2 billion of additional funding for 2019/20. A full breakdown of the allocations can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS1205, laid on 18 December 2018. (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-12-18/HCWS1205/)

This 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.

Work on no deal exit preparations cannot be readily separated from other exit work. The department is preparing for all eventualities and the resources available to support preparations are kept under constant review.