Dear Ed,
Thank you for your letter of 09 November in which you recommended publication of the details of an estimate included in the White Paper on ‘The Future relationship between the UK and EU’. The estimate reflected an assessment that under the proposed Facilitated Customs Arrangement ‘up to 96 per cent of UK goods trade would be most likely to be able to pay the correct or no tariff upfront, with the remainder most likely to use the repayment mechanism’.
I appreciate your advice on providing additional information and welcome the work by the UKSA on ensuring the effective communication of statistics across Government.
DExEU are committed to transparency and, in line with your recommendation, we have published a document with more background details on the figure presented on the Facilitated Customs Arrangement in the White Paper. Officials have been asked to ensure that moving forward more clarity is provided on the composition of such figures. Within DExEU we are also undertaking an exercise to reinforce departmental guidance and best practice around the use of statistics in publications.
Yours sincerely,
Philip Rycroft
Permanent Secretary
Department for Exiting The European Union
Related links:
Ed Humpherson to Philip Rycroft (November 2018)
Sir David Norgrove to Rt Hon the Lord Lilley (November 2018)
Rt Hon the Lord Lilley to Sir David Norgrove (October 2018)