30. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) is the department potentially most affected by Brexit. The Department told us in February 2019 that it currently had "about 2,500 people" working on Brexit.37 It is responsible for critically important commodities and EU legislation frames nearly all of its areas of responsibility, from the imports and exports of food to the regulation of the chemical industry.38 It is disappointing that the Department's approach is one that has been characterised by over-optimism and inadequate engagement with the business and industry sector.39
31. We found the Department to be unrelentingly confident in its preparations for a no- deal Brexit. It was confident that there would be no shortages of food in the event of a no-deal exit from the EU, and it did not expect food to be carried on the additional freight capacity secured by the Department for Transport. Nevertheless, the Department admitted that vulnerable groups could be affected if food prices rose and that a significant disruption to the short straits crossings across the channel would reduce the availability and choice of some foods.40
32. DEFRA, together with much of the rest of Whitehall, has been complacent in its engagement with businesses and hampered by excessive secrecy at the centre of Government. We found that many businesses had not been given detailed advice on preparing for the UK's exit from the EU. Generally, when the Department did engage with industry and business about preparedness, it was through umbrella organisations rather than with individual businesses. I am concerned that this disadvantages SMEs and risks leaving them under-prepared and ill-informed.41
33. The Department also appeared complacent about the risk of disruption that UK chemical exporters could face in a no-deal Brexit.42 For example, it relied on guidance being provided to the chemical industry by the European Chemicals Agency, which only published specific guidance for UK companies in February 2019.43
34. The Department's Brexit-related workload includes developing new arrangements for sectors that will no longer be under EU regulation or bodies. For example, DEFRA is developing new arrangements for farmers if the UK who will no longer be subject to the EU's common agricultural policy.44 That new policy poses the most dramatic change to UK agriculture in over 40 years.45 There needs to be urgent consideration about such complex future arrangements which could have a huge impact on the jobs and livelihoods of many citizens.
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37 Ibid, para 22, p 15
38 Committee of Public Accounts, Brexit and the UK border: further progress review, Eighty-Sixth Report of Session 2017-19, HC 1942, 12 March 2019, introduction, p 4
39 Ibid, conclusions 2 and 3, p 5
40 Committee of Public Accounts, Brexit and the UK border: further progress review, Eighty-Sixth Report of Session 2017-19, HC 1942, 12 March 2019, conclusion 2, p 5 and oral evidence Q 199
41 Committee of Public Accounts, Defra's progress towards Brexit, Sixty-Eighth Report of Session 2017-19, HC 1514, 14 November 2018, para 7, p 6
42 Ibid, para 3, p 6
43 Committee of Public Accounts, Brexit and the UK border: further progress review, Eighty-Sixth Report of Session 2017-19, HC 1942, 12 March 2019, conclusion3, p 6
44 The Guardian, More than two-thirds of Defra staff moved to Brexit-related roles, 30 March 2019
45 Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Early review of the new farming programme, Session 2017-19, HC 2221, 5 June 2019