To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money his Department has allocated for preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal to date; how much of that funding has been made by way of ministerial direction; and for what functions that funding has been allocated.
Answered on
16 January 2019
At Autumn Budget 2017, HM Treasury made an additional £3 billion of funding available over the next two years – £1.5 billion in each year – so that departments and the devolved administrations can continue to prepare effectively for European Union exit.
That is in addition to the £700 million previously made available to prepare for EU exit at Autumn Budget 2016.
In the Spring Statement on 13 March 2018, my Rt. hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Elizabeth Truss MP) laid a Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, setting out the full Departmental allocations of the £1.5 billion for 2018/19.
HM Treasury approved £21.1 million of funding for the Department of Health and Social Care’s preparations for EU exit in 2018/19, including planning for ‘no deal’. Spend against this allocation for 2018/19 will be included in the 2018/19 financial accounts in due course.
The Autumn Budget 2018 confirmed an additional £500 million of cross-Government funding for 2019/20, meaning the Government will have invested over £4 billion in preparing for EU exit since 2016. This funding will help departments manage pressures and contingencies arising from EU exit preparations which fall in the 2019/20 financial year, as well as ensuring that the United Kingdom is prepared to seize the opportunities available when we leave the EU. The Department of Health and Social Care has been allocated £50 million from this budget, as set out in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement HCWS1205, laid before Parliament on the 19 December 2018.
No written ministerial direction for expenditure on contingency planning for ‘no deal’ has been sought by the Accounting Officer for the Department.
The Department is preparing for all eventualities and the resources available to support preparations are kept under constant review.