Agenda item

Decision

That the work undertaken by officers in preparedness for Brexit be noted.

Corporate objectives

Modern and Efficient Council

Monitoring Officer/S.151 Officer comments

Monitoring Officer

The Council’s preparations for Brexit are being continually monitored.   Potential impacts and mitigations are being assessed at a service and strategic level and this will continue as progress is made towards the withdrawal date.

S.151 Officer

The council is continually monitoring the progress towards a final Brexit agreement. The potential financial impact is being assessed at a strategic and operational level with mitigations implemented if required.

The MHCLG grant for Brexit preparation is available to fund any mitigating actions required as a result of the final withdrawal agreement.

Advice

S Marshall introduced the report which sets out the council preparations for Brexit. There has been a lot of work ongoing behind the scenes with CMT and liaising with partners regionally and nationally. A ‘No Deal’ scenario and an extension of Article 50 remains a strong possibility. S Marshall said she was receiving daily updates from colleagues. The council have raised a number of questions and attached in the report is a response to the checklist provided by the Secretary of State and this is reviewed on a fortnightly basis by CMT. Officers have trawled the supply chains to highlight any risks and business continuity plans have been refreshed and updated. The council have a civil contingency approach to work with partners in the event of any civil unrest.

Councillor D Collins said one question being asked of him was, if the Article 50 deadline is extended for two years, the UK might need to participate in European Parliament elections. He said some have mentioned the possibility of the local elections being postponed to 23 May and run both elections on one day.

S Marshall said the process for the local elections starts on 26^th March. There is due to be a lot of activity over the next week with the EU and it is a question that has been asked of the Cabinet office. It is still an outstanding issue but as a council, we are preparing to have elections as normal on 2^nd May. A delay to the local elections would cause many issues and would have a knock on impact on the calendar of meetings, for example, Annual Council. She said the team are preparing to run both elections together but hoping for some clarification from the government.

Councillor Tindall said he believed that the EU are looking at possibly working on the premise that providing a short extension would mean accepting the current MEPs to sit until an exit or asking the UK parliament to nominate people to fill the seats which would avoid a rushed election.

S Marshall said she believed this would cause of range of issues that would probably be tested in the courts. We are looking at extra resources if needed and our primary role is to deliver sound elections.

Councillor Harden asked if the UK did have to have EU elections, would the election process begin before 2^nd May?

M Brookes said yes, it begins about six weeks prior.

Voting

None