The civil service has expanded by nearly 100,000 people since Brexit, a new report has shown. But it warns it is still lacking a clear structure on how to conduct post-Brexit policy.
The reports authors point out at the there is still no central unit to coordinate policy in the wake of Brexit.
The Brexit Department was axed in 2020 after the UK officially left the EU.
The departmental brief was then passed over to the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office.
The Brexit Department was axed in 2020 after the UK officially left the EU
PA
But the report, seen by LBC, said the lack of structure means junior ministers often end up pushing policy from the bottom up, but constantly changing job roles and a "lack of central direction" from the top of Government means policy is "incoherent and uncertain".
While they admitted that the Government has been able to successfully take back control of EU-based rules, it said there has been "relatively little divergence" from the EU overall since Brexit.
The Brexit and the State report says: "It is unclear how the transition of 2.8 million EU and EEA nationals from ‘pre-settled status’ to ‘settled status’ will be handled.
"The new farm payments scheme has been slow and unwieldy to implement.
"There have also been repeated delays to the imposition of full checks at the GB-EU border, and to the implementation of new GB regimes for chemicals registration and product standard marks."
It describes the Brexit project as "very much a work in progress", despite the UK having voted to leave the EU nearly a decade ago.
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Professor Anand Menon Director, UK in a Changing Europe, said: "No major party may want to talk about Brexit in the forthcoming election campaign.
"But, as this report makes clear, whoever forms the next government will nonetheless find many of the consequences of Brexit piling up in their in-tray.
"While the broad outlines of the UK’s long-term relationship with the EU may have been settled, ministers and officials are still grappling with the new demands Brexit has placed on the British state."
He added: "Adapting to Brexit is still very much a work in progress."
Jill Rutter, Senior Research Fellow and one of the report's authors, added: "The government has never set a clear strategic direction for how it wants the UK to operate outside the EU.
"That vacuum means that the shape of the post-Brexit state is only now beginning to emerge piecemeal through unconnected decisions often forced by external constraints”.
A Government spokesperson told LBC: "This government is continuing to deliver post-Brexit freedoms at every opportunity.
The reports authors point out at the there is still no central unit to coordinate policy in the wake of Brexit
PA
"Since leaving the EU we have overhauled our immigration system, laying the path for us to deliver the largest ever drop in migration; revoked and reformed over 2,000 laws, with over 1,000 more planned this year, delivering more than £1 billion in savings for businesses and customers; increased the speed of access to key medicines for patients whilst capitalising on tax freedoms – including getting rid of the VAT on women’s sanitary products; and struck new trade deals with 73 countries, as well as the EU itself.
"We have done all this whilst continuing to drive forward a more productive and efficient public sector, and recently introduced a cap on Civil Service headcount to further drive efficiencies across government."
