Recommendation 16

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 departments and many were drawn from the fast stream. A dedicated hub within the civil service human resources function co-ordinated the movement of thousands of civil servants to meet EU Exit priorities.44 The Cabinet Office told us that a similar approach had been taken in terms of pivoting staff to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic and that this had a particularly acute effect on preparations for EU Exit in the period April to June 2020.45