Recommendations & Conclusions
27 items
2
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
Government is not doing enough to ensure businesses and citizens will be ready for the end of the transition period, and it is unclear what has been learnt from the previous ‘Get ready for Brexit’ campaign. The Cabinet Office launched a new communications campaign, ‘The UK’s new start: let’s get …
Government response. 2.1 The government agrees with this recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 The government had been preparing extensively for all negotiation outcomes, and that included preparing third parties for the changes that would occur at the end of the Transition Period. The …
HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
Government continues to spend too much on consultants to undertake work that could be better done by civil servants, and does not do enough to utilise or develop skills and experience in-house. At the peak, more than 22,000 civil servants worked on EU exit, and at present that number is …
Government response. 3. 1 The government disagrees with this recommendation. 3.2 Please refer to the department’s response to recommendation 4. 3.3 The government agrees with this recommendation. Target implementation date: March 2021 3.4 The government has established a programme to review each …
HM Treasury
4
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
EU Exit preparations involved more than 22,000 civil servants at the peak and have cost at least £4.4 billion. But there has been no serious attempt to reflect and capture lessons for other challenges that government faces. Every government department has been affected by preparations for EU Exit and this …
Government response. 2020. The department is revising the structures through which the contracts are managed to ensure that roles are more clearly defined and sufficiently resourced for all aspects of contract management to operate fully effectively. It is developing more robust operating …
HM Treasury
5
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
EU Exit and the Covid-19 response have shown up critical gaps in the civil service’s approach to planning, particularly for unexpected events or undesired outcomes. The Cabinet Office keeps a national risk register, with input from across government and particularly the Treasury. The risk register includes “unexpected events” in terms …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with this recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 The government regularly conducts scenario-based exercises to ensure robust plans and appropriate capabilities are in place to respond to events, mitigate impacts and ensure the continuity of public services. 5.3 …
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
Government still does not have a good grip on how much taxpayers’ money is being spent on cross-government priorities. The Treasury has acknowledged the need for more timely, transparent financial information on cross-government areas of work, including both EU Exit and the Covid-19 response. Before the NAO’s analysis, it did …
Government response. 6.1 The government agrees with this recommendation. Re commendation implemented 6.1 HM Treasury has established a dedicated central team tracking COVID-19 and EU Exit funding decisions. This team centrally records all funding decisions and works with spending teams to maintain …
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury (the Treasury) about the learning for government from preparations for EU Exit.1 The C&AG’s report drew together lessons from 28 previous reports by the National Audit Office examining …
Government response. Based on a report by the National Audit Office, the Committee took evidence on 8 October from the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury (HMT). The Committee published its report on 2 December 2020. This is the government’s response to the …
HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
The Cabinet Office relies on information departments provide on their readiness to identify the highest risk elements of the programme, although it continues to use specialist support from the Infrastructure and Projects Authority to review projects and also uses commercial and digital experts to assess departments’ readiness.11 The Cabinet Office …
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
The Cabinet Office set out the current governance and decision-making structures for EU Exit.13 There are two ministerial committees, one focused on operations which currently meets daily and one focused on strategy which meets less often. At an official level, there is a programme board and regular meetings of senior …
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
The Cabinet Office recognises that other challenges government faces, such as the response to Covid-19, will also require cross-government working, working at pace, or working in new ways.18 The Cabinet Office feels that it has learnt a lot from EU Exit and put it into a practice via a process …
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
The Cabinet Office has a key role in ensuring government is ready to respond to unexpected and unprecedented events. It is responsible for coordinating civil contingencies response to unexpected events, conducting COBRA meetings, working with local resilience forums and with devolved administrations.24 The Cabinet Office also keeps a national risk …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with this recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 The government regularly conducts scenario-based exercises to ensure robust plans and appropriate capabilities are in place to respond to events, mitigate impacts and ensure the continuity of public services. 5.3 …
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
Recent events have shown up the limitations in government’s forward planning capability when put into practice. Ministers specifically limited the amount of contingency planning the civil service was expected to carry out ahead of the EU Exit referendum in 2016.27 While the Cabinet Office felt that was a reasonable position …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with this recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 The government regularly conducts scenario-based exercises to ensure robust plans and appropriate capabilities are in place to respond to events, mitigate impacts and ensure the continuity of public services. 5.3 …
HM Treasury
12
Recommendation
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
Our previous work on Covid-19 has highlighted the gaps in economic planning for pandemics, even though the risk of a pandemic was one of the most likely risks government had identified. In July 2020, we recommended that the Cabinet Office should review its contingency planning for the most serious risks …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with this recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 The government regularly conducts scenario-based exercises to ensure robust plans and appropriate capabilities are in place to respond to events, mitigate impacts and ensure the continuity of public services. 5.3 …
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
Government spent £4.4 billion on preparations for EU Exit between the referendum and January 2020.34 The Treasury admitted that it had not itself asked departments to provide information on their expenditure on EU Exit which it could consolidate to get an overall picture of spending for any period prior to …
Government response. 4.1 The government disagrees with this recommendation. 4. 2 The government is committed to continuous improvement. It has been engaged in the EU Exit processes in various forms over the past four years and have engaged in iterative learning processes …
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
The Treasury has relied on existing departmental processes within the system of Accounting Officer accountability to ensure money on EU Exit has been used as expected.37 We do not believe that this is sufficient, given the weaknesses identified by the NAO in the information departments hold, particularly in regards to …
Government response. 4.1 The government disagrees with this recommendation. 4. 2 The government is committed to continuous improvement. It has been engaged in the EU Exit processes in various forms over the past four years and have engaged in iterative learning processes …
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
The Treasury has acknowledged the need for more timely, transparent financial information on cross-government areas of work, including both EU Exit and the Covid-19 response.39 In the past, it has said that this is particularly difficult because these areas of work do not fit into accounting categories used to collect …
Government response. 6.1 The government agrees with this recommendation. Re commendation implemented 6.1 HM Treasury has established a dedicated central team tracking COVID-19 and EU Exit funding decisions. This team centrally records all funding decisions and works with spending teams to maintain …
HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
At the peak, more than 22,000 civil servants worked on EU Exit, and at present the Cabinet Office reports that the number is around 15,000.43 The civil service responded to this demand by moving staff between departments. In particular two thirds of staff in DExEU came on secondment from other …
Government response. 4: PAC conclusion: EU Exit preparations involved more than 22,000 civil servants at the peak and have cost at least £4.4 billion. 4: PAC recommendation: The Cabinet Office should conduct a formal review, including seeking input from third parties (particularly …
HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
There has been high turnover among staff working on EU Exit, particularly at senior levels. DExEU has had three Permanent Secretaries, the Border Delivery Group has had three Director-Generals, and there have been changes at Permanent Secretary grade in key Departments impacted by EU Exit, including Defra and HMRC.46 The …
Government response. 4: PAC conclusion: EU Exit preparations involved more than 22,000 civil servants at the peak and have cost at least £4.4 billion. 4: PAC recommendation: The Cabinet Office should conduct a formal review, including seeking input from third parties (particularly …
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
Demands on the civil servants working on the Covid-19 pandemic response and/or EU Exit have been high at a time when many are having to adjust to new ways of remote working.48 The Cabinet Office believes that morale across staff working on these two priorities remains high despite these challenges …
Government response. 3. 1 The government disagrees with this recommendation. 3.2 Please refer to the department’s response to recommendation 4.
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
Government has made extensive use of consultants to support preparations for EU Exit, and is also doing so on Covid-19. This Committee has raised concerns in the past about government’s increasing spend on consultants, and on the gap between the Cabinet Office’s and departments’ data on spending across government.50 The …
Government response. 3. 1 The government disagrees with this recommendation. 3.2 Please refer to the department’s response to recommendation 4. 3.3 The government agrees with this recommendation. Target implementation date: March 2021 3.4 The government has established a programme to review each …
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
The Cabinet Office set out that there is sometimes a need for consultants with 43 Q 101; C&AG’s Report, para 15 44 Qq 53, 54; C&AG’s Report, para 26 45 Qq 5, 18 46 Qq 46, 53; C&AG’s Report para 17 47 Q 53 48 Q 5 49 Qq 108–109 …
Government response. The government disagrees with this recommendation. 3.2 Please refer to the department’s response to recommendation 4. 3.3 The government agrees with this recommendation. Target implementation date: March 2021 3.4 The government has established a programme to review each aspect of …
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
The Cabinet Office launched a new communications campaign, ‘The UK’s new start: let’s get going’, in July. Its aim is to inform businesses and the public about what actions they need to take to be ready for the end of the transition period.53 The campaign has a budget of £70 …
Government response. 2.1 The Government agrees with this recommendation. 2.2 The government had been preparing extensively for all negotiation outcomes, and that included preparing third parties for the changes that would occur at the end of the Transition Period. The government’s approach …
HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
Despite the new campaign having been underway for some time, there remains a significant risk that businesses and individuals will not be ready for the end of the transition period. Government survey data suggests that 36% of SMEs still believe the transition period will be extended.58 The picture is changing …
Government response. 2.1 The Government agrees with this recommendation. 2.2 The government had been preparing extensively for all negotiation outcomes, and that included preparing third parties for the changes that would occur at the end of the Transition Period. The government’s approach …
HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
The Covid-19 pandemic has had an impact on readiness for EU Exit. The Cabinet Office is concerned that the primary focus of many small businesses during this year has been the impact of the pandemic on their business, rather than preparing for EU Exit. Current levels of readiness among businesses …
Government response. 2.1 The Government agrees with this recommendation.
HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
Although the Cabinet Office believes it has been clear that businesses need to be ready for the end of the transition period, there are multiple dates in 2021 from which new requirements for businesses on importing and exporting to the EU will take effect.66 In February this year government announced …
Government response. 2.1 The government agrees with this recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 The government had been preparing extensively for all negotiation outcomes, and that included preparing third parties for the changes that would occur at the end of the Transition Period. The …
HM Treasury
25
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
We are concerned that industry bodies have said that government has not provided key information needed by businesses to prepare, such as detailed guidance on how to apply for simplified customs procedures.70 The Cabinet Office provided an update on the status of two specific systems. The Goods Vehicle Movement Service …
Government response. 2.1 The Government agrees with this recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 The government had been preparing extensively for all negotiation outcomes, and that included preparing third parties for the changes that would occur at the end of the Transition Period. The …
HM Treasury
26
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
The Cabinet Office admitted that the market for customs agents is not expanding at the pace it needs to meet the increased demand post transition, despite an additional £50 million in funding announced by the government. This was an extension of previous funding of £34 million which had been used …
Government response. 2.1 The Government agrees with this recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 The government had been preparing extensively for all negotiation outcomes, and that included preparing third parties for the changes that would occur at the end of the Transition Period. The …
HM Treasury
27
Conclusion
Twenty-Ninth Report - Whitehall prepara…
In the event of major delays at the short Channel crossings, the Cabinet Office told us that there are plans to prioritise certain goods, such as exports of day-old chicks and fish for human consumption, and that additional freight capacity has been procured for the import of critical goods.73 The …
Government response. 2.1 The Government agrees with this recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 The government had been preparing extensively for all negotiation outcomes, and that included preparing third parties for the changes that would occur at the end of the Transition Period. The …
HM Treasury