Brexit: Civil servants preparing to carry out 'manual workarounds' over fears IT systems will not be ready in time

Civil servants are preparing to carry out “manual workarounds” because they fear their IT systems will not be ready for Brexit, risking logjams at Britain's ports.

An investigation by MPs raises the alarm over “disruption to the agri-food and chemical industries”, because of the lack of preparedness at the department for the environment, food and rural affairs (Defra).

Falling back on manual systems is likely to “impede or at least slow down imports and exports causing severe delays at the border”, their report warns.

Both Defra and the department for international trade (Dit) are facing an “impossible challenge” to get ready for Brexit, because they are “in the dark” about what they need to do, the public accounts committee concludes.

Meg Hillier, its chairwoman, called for more information from the government, saying: “The clock is ticking and there is still no clarity about what Brexit will mean in practice.”

The criticisms of Defra and Dit follow a similar scathing report on the unreadiness at the department for business – with Brexit day less than 11 months away.

The committee said Defra faced particular problems because it had to plan for both the 21-month transition period that Theresa May hopes to secure and the threat of “no deal”.

The department told the committee it was preparing for “manual workarounds” in the import control system used by ports to decide whether food was safe to be brought in, with a decision needed within weeks.

In the same way, a database to replace that run by the European Chemicals Agency, to authorise new chemical products, might not be ready – requiring “manual work”.

The department’s top civil servants acknowledged the fear of some “clunky fixes” and that some functions would not be performed “as slickly as they are at the moment”.

Both problems would arise if the government fails to secure an exit deal, or that deal is rejected by parliament, and it carries out its “no deal” exit threat.

The committee demanded an update from Defra by next month, “in case negotiations break down”.

“Given its poor track record on IT delivery, Defra must ensure it has the necessary resources in place to complete its IT programmes on time and avoid costly and embarrassing contingencies involving manual completion and submission of forms,” it said.

Ms Hillier added: “Departments are under extreme pressure. If parliament is to hold them to account then it is vital that government is as transparent as possible on the progress being made.

“Defra alone has 64 active workstreams, up from 43 at the time we took evidence in March. DIT, formed in direct response to the EU referendum result, has mission-critical responsibilities. All departments have much to do.”

The report also criticised the Treasury for failing to set out, until March, how much funding each department would receive in 2018-19 to prepare for Brexit.

It eventually announced that Defra would be allocated £310m and Dit £74m, out of a total pot of £1.6bn.