UK NAO: 'No deal' Brexit would mean costly border disruption - Reuters

The UK¨s National Audit Office, the country’s public spending watchdog, published a report late-Wednesday titled “The UK border: preparedness for EU exit”, with the key highlights found below.

There was not enough time to put fully effective border operations in place for a no-deal Brexit by March 29 and businesses would pay the price.

“Key ports and suppliers need reasonable certainty before making significant investments in infrastructure, people, systems or processes.”         

“This, combined with the UK’s potential loss of access to EU security, law enforcement and criminal justice tools, could create security weaknesses which the government would need to address urgently.”

“Introducing new border arrangements as part of a deal could still involve a large amount of work leading up to and beyond the end of the implementation period in December 2020.”

NAO Head Amyas Morse noted: “Government has openly accepted the border will be sub-optimal if there is no deal. The government has openly accepted the border will be sub-optimal if there is no deal.”