Brexit Department set to be scrapped in the new year
The government’s Brexit department is set to be wound up early in the new year.
Staff at the Department for Exiting the European Union have been told that the department will be closed, after the UK leaves the EU in January.
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It is expected that the top ranking civil servants from the department will be sent to work with chief Brexit negotiator David Frost on the second phase of negotiations to try and secure a free trade agreement with Brussels.
Speaking to ITV, a government spokesperson said: “Department for Exiting the European Union staff have been spoken to today.
“We are very grateful for all their work and we will help everyone to find new roles.”
The change will be one of several made in Whitehall in the new year.
Number 10 has foreshadowed that a number of departments will either be scrapped or merged.
Plans are reportedly being drawn up to merge the Department for International Trade and the business department, while the Department for International Development will be absorbed by the foreign office.
Climate change and energy will be taken out of the business department and become a separate portfolio and immigration will be taken out of the home office to become its own department as well.
The changes are also reported to include reform of how civil servants are recruited.
They would make it easier for high-ranking positions to be filled by external experts, instead of lifelong civil servant mandarins.
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A senior government figure told The Sunday Times: “It will be pretty big. It will be finding the people who can do the jobs and not worry about media and short-term things.
“We’re drawing up a very detailed and very revolutionary plan and then we are going to implement it.”