Dated 9Th April 2021

9TH APRIL 2021 THE REALITY BEHIND EUROPE MONTHLY £3.50 How the Civil Service has Coped with Brexit Jill Rutter ad a Brexit unit been set up at referendum. But there are also some decision had been made. the time of the renegotiation – hard questions for the civil service to The replacement of Theresa May by Hor indeed when the ask itself about the extent to which it Boris Johnson has – contrary to what referendum was first floated – it might forced ministers to think through the many expected – made the civil have given an indication of the scale of detailed consequences of their decision service’s life much easier. This was a the task of untangling the UK-EU to put UK membership on the line, not Government with a clear set of relationship. Forty-five years of EU least the very stark implications for the priorities; sovereignty first, economy membership meant not only that the future of the Union in general and second. The installation of David impact of the EU was both deep and Northern Ireland in particular. Frost, a Political Appointee as Chief wide, but also that it was somewhat Negotiator, proved an unlikely boon: it taken for granted and hence poorly Brexit reversed cuts in removed any sense that the civil understood. There was little focus on civil service numbers service (which supplies the rest of the how the border with the EU operated, There was another respect in which the negotiating team) was pursuing its the relationship between EU civil service was not ready for Brexit. own agenda, independent of ministers. membership and devolution within the Since 2009 its size had been on a The Frost team – with its two civil UK, or the implications of the Single steady downward trajectory – and the service deputies – was prepared to Market and Customs Union for trading Government had plans for a further big work more closely with the UK’s EU patterns. reduction after 2015. As Deloitte experts in Brussels than the Robbins “The civil service faced two stated, that was not sustainable in the team ever did. The civil service has challenges: skills and numbers. Brexit face of Brexit. come under fire in 2020 but not due to meant developing capabilities – like Theresa May’s first acts on the Brexit negotiations. trade negotiation – that Whitehall had becoming Prime Minister were to not needed for decades. The civil create two new Government The post-Brexit balance sheet service had to hunt for external talent departments: the temporary So has the civil service survived the to fill gaps.” Department for Exiting the EU ‘existential threat’ from Brexit? And it was not just the EU (DExEU) and the permanent It is bigger. It has attracted new relationship that was poorly Department for International Tr a d e . blood. And it can take pride in the fact understood. Taking Brexit forward The consequences of these so-called that it has supported a Government to also meant understanding the machinery of government changes get the sort of Brexit it wanted. Even if complexity of a relationship with the were, in the words of Philip many will say that the negotiations devolved governments, which was Hammond, ‘not deeply thought could have been handled better, both predicated on a framework of EU through’. The creation of a under May and Johnson, it is clearly membership. Meanwhile, the freestanding Brexit department led to now the politicians who own the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement had inevitable tensions with No.10, which outcome. Down the line, ministers sunk into the background of ultimately wanted to control the may complain that they were not Whitehall’s collective memory. negotiations; and the creation of the warned of unexpected consequences, There is a lot of political blame to new trade department appeared to but the fact that David Frost be handed out for the casual way in signal that the UK would leave the personified the exit negotiations means which politicians approached the EU’s Customs Union before any such Continued on page 2 INSIDE: On going EU payments p 3 - The EU agency that eats well p 3 - The Northern Ireland Protocol p 4 – Crowd funding p 5 - Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) - Letters p 6 VOL 26 NO 8 How the Civil Service has Coped with Brexit Jill Rutter Continued from page 1 The civil service will also have to The danger is that the atmospherics at he will be held responsible for that. find a way of hanging on to what EU the top – the Cummings legacy – mean Ministers, for their part, can take expertise it has left. It will no longer be that top civil servants are too reluctant comfort from confounding Whitehall able tempt good people to Brussels to call out dubious practices and gloomsters like Sir Ivan Rogers, with the lure of being ‘in the room confront ministers with challenging who warned, where it happens’ – or at least not in the advice. “It Could Take 10 Years to do a free main room. The UK will not be trade deal with the EU”. negotiating Kim Darroch’s widgets The Civil Service response to Covid directive, but it will be on an The civil service rose to the challenge The next big challenge from Brexit intelligence gathering mission to find of Brexit, particularly once ministers is to see what the UK can do with its out what the widgets directive might finally made clear what they thought new found powers. Much of the day- say and whether it needs to launch an Brexit meant. The additional challenge to-day task of making Brexit work will influencing strategy to try to stop it of Covid-19 exposed weaknesses – as fall not to Whitehall but to the arm’s harming British interests. well as some surprising strengths – length bodies who have taken over The Trade and Cooperation though only a full-blown public many of the responsibilities formerly Agreement sets up a massive inquiry will make clear how blame exercised by the Commission. T h e superstructure of committees to should be apportioned between government has signed up to give new oversee its operation. Understanding ministers and their civil and public the way the EU operates will still servants. But Brexit and the handling powers to quangos – the Competition matter. The ‘judge over your shoulder’ of Covid-19 both showed up areas that and Markets Authority and the Office guide which warns civil servants of the would benefit from reform, as well as for Environmental Protection among need to think about the risk of judicial new ways of working that need to be them. There is a tricky relationship review, will sit alongside the ‘eurocrat sustained. Ministers may, for example, with these semi-independent bodies to in the corner’, watching to see if the be keen to draw lessons from manage if they are to have enough UK is tilting the level playing field too t h e SUCCESS OF THE VA C C I N E credibility to do their job convincingly. far. There are dangers for the civil TASK FORCE and see whether that But there are also new policies to be service in the gap between the gung-ho model can be applied elsewhere. made, and made work, in areas where optimism of ministers and the reality of Whitehall has not had policy discretion what they have signed up to. At the As the UK heads into a future and associated expertise for decades. moment it is hard to say how outside the EU, the civil service will be Defra made an ALMIGHTY HASH constraining the agreement will prove keen to show that it can help ministers OF IMPLEMENTING CAP to be in practice. And the UK will need as they take back control and show the REFORM (a reform it had advocated) to establish a basis for working Governments of the EU that the UK in the 2000’s, ending up paying a positively with the EU on the shared can indeed make policy better alone. stream of fines to Brussels: will it be interests the Prime Minister repeatedly Ministers, in turn, need to show that able to manage the radically different mentions: the first big test will be the after a bruising period, they can work agricultural support scheme? climate change summit at the end of effectively with their civil servants. There are question marks too over the year. They also need to reassure, by actions trade policy. The Department for The biggest risk to the civil service as well as words, that they still value a International Trade can be quietly is that ministers who claimed, in non-partisan civil service – or initiate a satisfied that it has succeeded in rolling defiance of the economic assessments, public debate on the alternative. over so many of the trade agreements it that the UK will prosper mightily, deal inherited from our years as an EU or no deal, are disappointed when they Jill Rutter is a Senior Research Fellow m e m b e r. But can it deliver to find that Brexit has not given them at UK in a Changing Europe and a ministers’ expectations, not least when massive new levers to deliver their former Treasury Civil Servant. they still seem unwilling to engage wider agenda. If they are just interested This article first appeared on the with the very real trade-offs and in policy as performance art or symbol, website of UK in a Changing Europe, choices they need to make to have a it may not matter that immediate where a fuller report is available.

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