The Spending of the Department for Exiting the European Union

The subject for this debate was selected by the Backbench Business Committee as part of the new process for choosing subjects of Estimates Day debates, following the publication of the 2017-18 Supplementary Estimates on 7 February 2018. The application to the Committee was made by Stephen Gethins MP, who said the following in his proposal to the Committee:

There is a significant debate taking place at the moment about our future relationship with the European Union. As part of that, despite being a relatively new Department, DExEU’s expenditure is having consequences right across Whitehall, and we are seeing considerable transfers from DExEU to other Departments. I am asking for the opportunity to debate the costs of Brexit, looking at day-to-day activities, ongoing negotiations, practical spending on transitional arrangements and other related contingency planning.

I think that this is particularly important, regardless of what side of the debate colleagues sit on. This will be an increasingly important Department, not least over the next six months, and some of its actions will have very significant and far-reaching consequences. It will give us the opportunity to interrogate that a little bit further.