David Davis, secretary of state for exiting the EU, has told his Cabinet colleagues that HMRC will require up to 5,000 additional members of staff next year to cope with the additional demands of Brexit. This follows a recent hearing of the Commons Public Accounts Committee on the future of customs, at which HMRC’s chief executive and permanent secretary Jon Thompson said the department was reviewing its priorities in the light of Brexit. When questioned about delivery of the customs declaration service, Thompson said that in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit scenario, an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 additional HMRC staff would need to be recruited. Thompson explained that HMRC has already been given £78m of the £250m set aside for contingency planning in 2017/18, but he said that ‘in the most extreme version’ of Brexit there would be an estimated additional cost of £300m-£450m (see bit.ly/2ykRjKC).
David Davis, secretary of state for exiting the EU, has told his Cabinet colleagues that HMRC will require up to 5,000 additional members of staff next year to cope with the additional demands of Brexit. This follows a recent hearing of the Commons Public Accounts Committee on the future of customs, at which HMRC’s chief executive and permanent secretary Jon Thompson said the department was reviewing its priorities in the light of Brexit. When questioned about delivery of the customs declaration service, Thompson said that in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit scenario, an estimated 3,000 to 5,000 additional HMRC staff would need to be recruited. Thompson explained that HMRC has already been given £78m of the £250m set aside for contingency planning in 2017/18, but he said that ‘in the most extreme version’ of Brexit there would be an estimated additional cost of £300m-£450m (see bit.ly/2ykRjKC).
