No Brexit funds for domestic departments

16 Mar 18

Some of the main domestic Whitehall departments have lost out on money allocated by the Treasury to help with Brexit preparations.

Housing, communities and local government, work and pensions and education all received nothing from the £1.5bn allocated by chief secretary Liz Truss to help Whitehall and the devolved administrations prepare for Brexit.

A Treasury spokesperson said a further £1.5bn would be allocated next year and the three departments had not bid because they either had no significant Brexit-related cost this year, or could meet these from their normal spending.

By far the largest allocation was £395m to the Home Office, followed by £310m for the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We have a team working on our plans for EU exit and we are also in discussions with local government.”

The department said it had reprioritised and made efficiencies within existing budgets in order to fund Brexit-related work.

CIPFA chief executive Rob Whiteman said: “A lot is at stake for local public services when it comes to Brexit, so it is vital that the MHCLG has adequate resources to assess and prepare for the potentially profound impacts and, we must hope, opportunities that will come with it.

“Transparency over how much money within the department has been set aside to deal with Brexit would provide welcome reassurance that the department is equipped to deal with the impact of Brexit.”

The full list of allocations (£m) is:

Home Office

395.0

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

310.0

HM Revenue & Customs

260.0

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

185.1

Department for Transport

75.8

Department for International Trade

74.0

Cabinet Office

49.4

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

29.6

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

26.2

HM Treasury

24.8

Competition and Markets Authority

23.6

Department of Health and Social Care

21.1

Ministry of Justice

17.3

Food Standards Agency

14.0

Ministry of Defence

12.7

Office for National Statistics

2.0

National Archives

1.2

Northern Ireland Office

0.4

Scotland Office

0.3

Wales Office

0.3

 

Truss said these allocations had generated money for the devolved administrators under the Barnett formula.

These were Scottish Government £37.3m, Welsh Government £21.4m, Northern Ireland Executive £15.2m.

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