MPs voice ‘grave concerns’ over lack of urgency

AN influential MPs’ committee has voiced “grave concerns” over the complacency of the Government’s Department for Business in preparing for Brexit.

The department, headed by Business Secretary Greg Clark, is one of the parts of government most deeply affected by EU withdrawal, with responsibility for around one-fifth of the work streams requiring action.

But the chairwoman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, Meg Hillier, said it appeared to be “operating in a parallel universe where urgency is an abstract concept”.

With around a year to go to Brexit day on March 29, 2019, the department had not begun procurement for at least 12 essential IT systems needed to replace EU databases for projects like the emissions trading scheme, said the committee in a report.

And it had made “virtually no attempt” to re-order existing priorities to free up time and staff for the massive job of ensuring a smooth Brexit.

The committee gave Mr Clark a twomonth deadline to confirm which programmes can be stopped, paused or slowed down to make way for Brexit priorities. Branding the delay in starting work on new IT systems “extraordinary”, the cross-party group said it “doubted the realism” of the department’s plans and was “sceptical” they would be delivered on time.

The department was “relying too heavily” on the proposed 21-month transition period which would delay the introduction of new arrangements until 2021, said the report, which stressed that new systems may be needed as early as next March if talks fail.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) was given an extra £35m by the Treasury for Brexit preparations in 2017/18 and has recruited 305 of the 350 additional staff it believes are needed.

But the committee said it was “concerned” that the new recruits “lack the required level of experience and expertise”.

Many of those hired are policy experts, leaving vital posts unfilled in areas like digital, where competition for specialist staff is fierce, the report warned. It also repeated concerns about the government’s ability to get 1,000 pieces of secondary legislation – including 150 from BEIS – through Parliament in time for Brexit.