Watchdog accuses mandarins of failing to help businesses prepare

A GOVERNMENT department has been accused of complacency by MPs over its Brexit readiness, a claim it flatly rejected.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is “too complacent” about the disruption or interruption to trade Brexit may mean, with key issues for food, chemical and animal imports and exports still unresolved, the watchdog Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said.

The committee found that many businesses had been given no detailed advice on what Brexit requires because of Defra’s limited engagement with stakeholders until more recently.

It said Defra has set up a directorate for business readiness and engagement but its focus has been on industry and representative groups, leaving businesses, especially SMEs, ill-prepared.

But a Defra spokeswoman said: “We do not accept the PAC’s conclusions which fail to accurately reflect Defra’s preparations for leaving the EU.”

She said the committee had ignored National Audit Office findings to the contrary and had failed to acknowledge Defra’s progress on replacing EU functions, hiring key staff and building new IT systems.

On publishing the report, Meg Hillier MP, who chairs the PAC committee, said Defra was “a long way from being ready”, adding: “It is alarming how little specific information Defra has provided to enable individual businesses and organisations to prepare.

“Brexit border planning is not sufficiently developed, six critical IT systems are still to be tested and there is a risk that in the Department’s rush to prepare necessary legislation, the quality of that legislation will suffer.”