Cabinet ministers have been told they must set in motion new plans to keep planes flying to North America, as well as keeping British troops legally in Bosnia, in case the EU forces a no-deal exit.

Before their marathon cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the cabinet secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, briefed ministers that major security and commercial decisions would need to be completed if Brussels rejected Theresa May’s plan to ask for a short extension to article 50.

A cabinet source said the decisions were likely to result in large costs to the taxpayer and that decisions would also need to be taken on direct rule in Northern Ireland and payment of the UK’s £39bn divorce bill to the EU.

Among the decisions outlined in a 14-page document handed to ministers in Downing Street were:

New agreements would need to be enacted for air services with Canada and the US.

British troops in Bosnia currently serving as part of an EU force would need to be placed under Nato command.

Negotiations would need to be urgently completed on a future fisheries agreement so that EU fishing boats could be expelled from British waters.

Sedwill, the UK’s highest-ranking civil servant, is said to have warned cabinet ministers that some of the biggest decisions were likely to be very difficult to reverse, because they involved international agreements. A new air services arrangement with the US was reached in November to replace the existing EU aviation agreement, which could come into force in the event of no deal.

The warnings from Sedwill, who is also May’s national security adviser, follow an earlier letter he wrote to ministers warning that no deal would lead to food price rises and a reduction in security capacity.

The 14-page leaked letter, obtained on Monday by the Daily Mail, said no deal would result in the reintroduction of direct rule in Northern Ireland.

Sedwill also warned that the UK would face a recession “more harmful” than the 2008 financial crisis and that food prices could increase by up to 10%.

He wrote that it was possible that the government would come under pressure to bail out companies facing collapse due to the barriers to trade with the EU and that security services and police would face a reduction in their capabilities.

On Wednesday, Bob Kerslake, a former head of the civil service, called for the analysis to be made public. “The threat of a no-deal exit has not gone away,” Lord Kerslake told a People’s Vote press conference.

“I have written to the cabinet secretary, Sir Mark Sedwill, and asked him to break precedent and publish his 14-page document setting out the catastrophic consequences of a no-deal Brexit.

“The publication of such advice now is vital to ensure that parliament is fully informed, and to avoid any suggestion that information has been partially leaked to support a particular point of view.”

At least 14 members of May’s cabinet spoke out against the possibility of a long article 50 extension and would only endorse a short Brexit extension. However, on Wednesday the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said that unless the withdrawal deal was passed within nine days the UK would crash out of the EU or have to sign up to a long delay.

Juncker instead set an “ultimate deadline” of 12 April for the Commons to approve the withdrawal agreement. “If it has not done so by then, no further short extension will be possible,” he said. “After 12 April, we risk jeopardising the European parliament elections, and so threaten the functioning of the European Union.”