Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has for (a) two and (b) three shift patterns of working for staff in his Department in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

The Department’s Operations Centre (DOC) which will manage and lead the preparations and response to a no deal exit was formally activated in the period 21-28 October 2019 and two shift working was in operation during that period.

We consider this shift pattern will be sufficient to effectively manage a no deal exit in the majority of circumstances. In the event a no deal exit occurs with multiple event occurring at the same time, we would introduce three shift working to effectively manage a reasonable worst case scenario.