Michael Gove’s department yet to comprehend scale of work it must complete, says NAO

Michael Gove’s department will not be ready for a no-deal Brexit and does not yet understand the scale of work it must complete, an auditors’ report has found.

After examining the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ preparations for Britain leaving the EU, the National Audit Office said Defra officials had failed to hire enough vets and this could severely disrupt exports of UK food.

Defra will have completed just 15 out of 154 of the national export agreements needed to maintain the trade of animals and animal products with the EU after Britain leaves, auditors discovered.

Plans to increase patrols of fishing waters were also unlikely to be ready, and the UK’s £17bn chemical export market to the EU was facing the possibility of grinding to a halt, the NAO report said.

There was also a “high risk” that Defra would be unable to deliver planned legislation by March 2019, because it did not have time to pass three bills and 93 statutory instruments.

The report is expected to be highly embarrassing for Gove, a principal figure in the Vote Leave campaign, who recently told farmers and the food industry that his department would be ready for Brexit.

In July, he said he believed that a tariff-free trade deal was likely. Asked by the BCC what would happen if there was no deal, he said: “Well, we will get that deal and I’m confident that food and farming not just in Wales but across the UK will benefit from a win-win situation.”

Defra is responsible for 55 of the 319 EU-related workstreams across government, covering chemical and agrifood industries, agriculture, fisheries and the environment.

The report concludes: “For some workstreams, Defra has passed the point where it will be able to deliver what it had initially planned for a ‘no-deal’ exit in March 2019.”

The department has a shortfall in the number of vets to process the increased number of export health certificates (EHCs) that are expected to be needed in the event of no deal. The report said food exports could be delayed at the border or prevented from leaving the UK.

Defra needed to negotiate with 154 non-EU countries to agree acceptance of UK versions of more than 1,400 EHCs, the report said.

“[Defra] is focusing on reaching agreement with 15 of these countries that it estimates account for approximately 90% of total exports to non-EU countries of animal products, food and live animals, but is not expecting to be able to complete negotiations with all the remaining 139 countries by March 2019,” it added.

The UK chemical industry, the country’s second biggest manufacturing exporter, is at risk of disruption without a new negotiated settlement with the EU.

“To recover market access, they would need to re-register their products on the EU’s system via an affiliate or representative located in an EU member state. This is a lengthy process that cannot be started until the UK has left the EU,” auditors said.

“If there is still a significant likelihood of no deal being reached in October 2018, Defra is planning to launch an emergency recruitment campaign of vets to bring capacity at least part-way towards the minimum level required.”

Amyas Morse, the head of the NAO, said the scale and complexity of what needed to be done to leave the EU had left Defra struggling, although officials have done relatively well under very difficult circumstances.

“Like other departments, it now must ensure its voice is heard by the centre of government to provide an accurate picture of what is possible if a negotiated settlement is not reached, and even if it is,” he said.

Meg Hillier MP, who chairs the public accounts committee, said: “We are rapidly running out of time for Defra and other departments to finish planning and deliver completely new services and functions, and a huge volume of legislation.

“The government needs to be honest with the public about its progress in delivering key elements of Brexit and must be upfront about what won’t be ready in time.”

A Defra spokesperson said the department had already achieved a great deal in its preparations for leaving the EU.

“As the report also recognises, we have already secured HM Treasury approval for £320m spending in 2018-19, started to build new IT systems and developed new services to replace those currently provided by the EU.

“Since the report was written, we have continued to reprioritise our resources, expanded our workforce and made further progress on our extensive programme of work focused on preparing for a range of Brexit scenarios.”





