5,000 more staff for the HMRC to deal with Brexit
Up to 5,000 extra staff are to be recruited by HM Revenue and Customs next year to deal with EU withdrawal, Brexit Secretary David Davis has told the Cabinet.
Mr Davis said the move was part of an ongoing process which had already seen nearly 3,000 posts created across Government to support Brexit efforts.
The Brexit Secretary told fellow ministers that 300 lawyers have been recruited to the government legal department in the past year.
Mr Davis said the recruitment was necessary to ensure the UK was ready to deal with exiting the EU in March 2019.
He told colleagues: “Alongside the negotiations in Brussels, it is crucial that we are putting our own domestic preparations in place so that we are ready at the point that we leave the EU.”
The Cabinet was told many of the preparations “will be needed even in our preferred scenario of a bold and ambitious deal – for example, implementing either of our proposed customs arrangements will require investment in new systems and customs officers by HMRC.”
Ministers heard that 300 Brexitrelated programmes were in place and each prepares the country for the range of negotiated outcomes and a “no deal” scenario.
The Cabinet was told that more than £500m had already been committed for Brexit preparedness, with more than £250m additional funding in 2017/18.
Ministers heard the extra money would be spent on implementing changes at the border, preparing for future new trade agreements and converting existing EU law into domestic law on withdrawal.
Prime Minister Theresa May told Cabinet colleagues that a new EU Exit and Trade Sub-Committee was being created “to support the intensification of our domestic preparations”.
Chaired by First Secretary of State Damian Green, the committee will “focus on domestic preparedness, legislation, and devolution”.
The Cabinet Brexit discussions came amid reports the Bank of England has warned quitting could cost up to 75,000 financial services jobs.
Senior figures at the bank said estimates over job losses were a “reasonable scenario”, particularly if the UK leaves without special arrangements for the sector, according to the BBC.
The number could change if terms are agreed on financial services, but substantial losses would still be expected as jobs are shifted to the rest of the bloc, it reported.
The government is hoping EU leaders meeting in December will agree that trade talks can start.
The EU has insisted that more progress needs to be made on legacy issues such as Britain’s exit bill, citizens’ rights and the Irish border before negotiations about the future trading relationship with Britain can begin.