UK lawmakers concerned about Brexit readiness, call for robust contingency plan

On December 19, a British parliamentary committee voiced concern over the country's preparedness for the end of the Brexit transition period and called on the government to ensure that there is a robust contingency plan to deal with “whatever happens” after January 1. With less than a month left for Britain to exit the European Union, both parties still face a deadlock in trade agreements post-December 31. In case, they don’t reach an agreement before the transition period expires, then the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules would automatically come into play forcing border checks and custom tariffs on British products.

In a report, the House of Commons Committee on the Future Relationship with the European Union warned about the potentially challenging start to 2021 where businesses and people "adjust to life" outside the Single Market and Customs Union. The committee also stated that some decisions on infrastructure had been taken "too late" and businesses continue to be held back by the COVID-19 pandemic and uncertainty about trade rules in the future.

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Asserting that UK’s safety and security must not be compromised, it advised the government to closely monitor the speed and effectiveness of its fallback systems. It warned that a European arrest warrant was unlikely to be in place from January 1.

"While UK law enforcement agencies are working hard to develop alternatives to EU databases such as the Schengen Information System II, the fall-back systems for information sharing are likely to be slower and more cumbersome," the committee noted.

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Ireland 

It said that although a "pragmatic solution" has been reached to prevent land border between Northern Ireland and Ireland in case of no-deal Brexit, it emphasised that Irish people should be, at the earliest, told about terms of Trade within their own country.

"We welcome the agreement on the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, for example. But we are worried about the consequences of trucks not having the right paperwork, traffic disruption around ports, and the UK’s security being affected by loss of access to EU law enforcement databases," Committee chair Hilary Benn MP said.

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(With Agency Inputs)