See thread below for key points from this morning's @CommonsEUexit hearing 👇
Sir Chris Wormald, Permanent Secretary, Department of Health: “health has not been a huge issue of contention in our [UK’s] dealings with the EU... would see it as their responsibility that vulnerable people are catered for regardless of the outcome.”
Sir Chris Wormald: “We have asked the pharmaceutical industry to create a buffer stock… We are pleased with their response… But in an incredibly complex supply chain it remains very challenging.”
Sir Chris Wormald: “I should say it’s quite challenging in normal circumstances… We’re currently dealing with a world shortage of epipens; nothing to do with exiting the Union.”
Bernadette Kelly, Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport: “there are advanced plans for dealing with lorries on the M20 & M26 and if needed at Manston airport.”
Bernadette Kelly: “we do have experience of dealing with this [motorway delays]… this isn’t a particularly unusual or difficult thing to be arranged.”
Bernadette Kelly: “The Article 50 task force has itself indicated that in this area [aviation] it would consider a bare-bones agreement appropriate to ensure the continuity of flights.”
Jon Thompson, Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary, HM Revenue and Customs: concerned that "there has been limited engagement with the 145,000 intra-EU traders."
Jon Thompson: "We anticipated that between 6 and 10% would [of contacted businesses] would contact us and it’s been 1%.”
Jon Thompson: “Our assessment is that this [no deal Brexit] is a red rated risk… that is not the Government’s preferred outcome of this process.”
Sir Ian Cheshire, Government Lead Non-Executive Director, Cabinet Office: “The impact [of no deal] on people is generally difficult to predict at this moment… until you know what arrangements are made.”
Sir Ian Cheshire: “We have to see the shape of the reaction [from EU states] as well as the [kind of] no deal [before UK reacts].”
Bernadette Kelly: “All that is needed to ensure that flights can continue is for EASA [European Aviation Safety Agency] to issue an authorisation. That is a simple matter.”
Bernadette Kelly: “The CAA [Civil Aviation Authority] and EASA have technical discussions all the time… We are currently a member of EASA and wish to remain a non-voting member after we exit.”
Bernadette Kelly: “We have seen in slides that task force 50 have published that they would see bare-bones agreements on aviation as being something that they would need to consider.”
Bernadette Kelly: “The Commission has indicated that they do see the need for us to maintain the continuity of [transport via the Channel tunnel] services. We have permission to talk to the French about that and those discussions have begun.”
Sir Chris Wormald: “I think it’s inconceivable that you won’t have discussions about issues of mutual interest in exactly the same way we do with the rest of the world.”
Sir Chris Wormald: “Would we go on working with countries in Europe one way or another on health protection? It seems almost inconceivable that we would not."
Sir Chris Wormald: "Would they [health protection discussions] be part of a formal discussion with the EU… possibly not. But would discussions go on? Of course they would.”
Jon Thompson: “We don’t know whether the French, the Dutch, the Belgians and particularly the Irish will be reasonable or legalistic… significant difference to the level of checking which may or may not take place on imports and exports.”
Jon Thompson: “There are no side deals that I’m aware of that we’re working on from an HMRC perspective.”
Jon Thompson: On ports “it is extremely difficult to have bilateral conversations with any of the EU27 or any individual ports… some limited conversations with Calais, Zeebrugge and Rotterdam, but the 27 feed back into task force 50.”
Jon Thompson: “For no deal our estimate [has increased] to 5,300 extra staff [needed]… Friday last week, about 2,300 people had started working for HMRC for Brexit.”. If there is no deal, HMRC would be “well north of 4,500 additional staff by [April].”
Jon Thompson: “We anticipate that under no deal the number of customs declarations would increase by a factor of 5.”
Jon Thompson: “The cost of Brexit for 2018-19 for HMRC is £260m. Our estimate for next year, in the event that there is a deal, is just over £400m and [if no deal] £450m.”
Sir Chris Wormald: “Total number of [NHS] staff from the EU has gone up since the referendum… We haven’t seen evidence of people leaving.”
Bernadette Kelly rejects @UKandEU report findings of no deal consequences for haulage delays on the UK side of the UK-French border, "We do have a plan to be ready for 29 March."
Jon Thompson: “The risk for Dover [port] is really the other side… We do not know how Calais might behave. It’s a closed loop system, so as soon as there is any kind of delay in Calais you will get some kind of delay in Dover.”
Jon Thompson: “[no] requirement to add any UK-based checks [at Dover] so we are in the hands of the French [regarding delays]… at what point can we talk to them about the reality of no deal? How reasonable or legalistic are they going to be?” Answers still unknown.
Jon Thompson: “There are 77k [UK] companies who trade only with the rest of the world, 73k who trade with the rest of the world and the EU, and a minimum of 145k that trade only with the EU.” Last group do not fill in customs declarations ATM. New admin costs for them in no deal.
Sir Chris Wormald: “In the event of no deal with no other arrangements all the current arrangements around EHIC would fall and individuals would have to take out travel insurance [as with non-EU countries].”
Jon Thompson: If no tariff schedule is submitted to the WTO, the UK would not apply a tariff. “If the UK does not have a tariff, we can’t charge a tariff... That would not prevent [goods] getting through the border.”
Jon Thompson: “Both Zeebrugge and Rotterdam [who have had informal talks with HMRC] see this [disruption at Calais] as a commercial opportunity… [Traders] quite often drive through Northern France to see where the shortest queue is before deciding when to turn left.”
Sir Chris Wormald:“We have already pressed go on our [no deal contingency plan] on medicine stockpiling. We did that on August 23.” Different contingency plans have different start dates depending on the time needed to prepare.
Jon Thompson: “We have a series of dates to [when no deal contingency plans begin to be implemented] but we’ve already passed most of those. In some areas we’ve taken action in some we haven’t. You’ll have a functioning order, but it’ll be sub-optimal.”
Jon Thompson: “If you want to move from the optimal high-functioning system that you’ve got now and not feel any impact from no deal, you had to take action a long time ago.”
