In the event of not reaching a deal with the European Union by March 29, 2019, Government has published the following guidance for businesses:
Update on continuity of supply and border assumptions
New border assumptions show that there will be significantly reduced access cross the short straits to and from Dover and Folkestone, for up to six months. To mitigate this risk, Government and industry are undertaking the following:
The Department for Transport has taken steps to secure additional roll-on, roll-off freight capacity on a variety of routes to ease pressure on the short straits crossing. This includes capacity on ferries into and out of Poole, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Ramsgate, Immingham and Felixstowe. The Government has agreed that medicines and medical products will be able to access capacity on these alternative routes and will be prioritised.
- A letter from Dr Keith Ridgely, Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, outlining the steps taken thus far to protect the continuity of supply for medicines to pharmacists can be found here.
- Guidance for patients on getting hold of medicines can be found here.
Guidance on the Regulation of Medicines, Medical Devices and Clinical trials
- “Planning for a possible no deal EU exit” information for the health and care sector can be found here.
- MHRA’s updated guidance on the regulation of medicines, devices and clinical trials can be found here.
Business Readiness Tool
- The Government has published a tool to help you find out what your business will need to do to prepare for the UK leaving the EU. It asks you to answer simple questions and which drives a list of Technical Notices which should be of most interest to your company.
HMRC Partnership Pack
- HMRC published a revised Partnership Pack in December 2018 which has specific advice to businesses on what planning is needed to carry on importing and exporting in the event of a no deal.
Do you intend to process your own customs declarations and/or need changes to your IT systems to comply with customs processes?
- If so, you may wish to apply for funding to help you train staff or update systems. Further details are available here.
Chemicals
- If your business uses chemicals (even if you do not make them or trade in them), you may take on new regulatory responsibility you did not previously have, for example, if you import chemicals from the EU you may need to become the registrant for UK REACH.
- Visit the HSE Brexit webpage for information on how each of the chemicals regimes will be affected;
- Refer to the Additional Guidance for information on REACH, including actions if you use but are not producing chemicals. Actions for different types of businesses are summarised in the Table PDF link at the bottom of the page;
- Check contingency plans across your supply chain to understand what information you may need to supply to UK agencies, logistics providers, suppliers and customers.
People/migration
- The Home Office has published the future skills-based immigration system white paper which sets out the Government’s plans to introduce a new single immigration system, ending free movement.
- You can find information about the Government’s settled status scheme here; this will be relevant to EU workers living in the UK.
Transferring personal data/data protection
- You may need to take action if you transfer personal data from the EU to the UK. You can find information on data protection the following Technical Notice and recently published policy statement.
- The ICO has also published useful guidance.
Services
- A Services Technical Notice “Providing services, including those of a qualified professional, if there’s no Brexit deal” has been published setting out what business and citizens would need to do in a ‘no deal’ scenario, so they can prepare accordingly.
You can sign up for email updates on customs, VAT and related processes direct from HMRC here and more general updates from the Department for Exiting the European Union here.
For more information on legal and regulatory issues may be impacted by Brexit, attend our free breakfast briefing event, on Thursday 21 February 2019 at the BioCity Discovery Building – (NG1 1GF). For more information and to book your place, click here