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19 June
Rt Hon David Davis MP
(Secretary of State for Leaving the European Union) and Michel Barnier
(European Chief Negotiator for Brexit) meet to start the first formal round of
negotiation talks. The content of the 'first phase' is decided to be citizens'
rights, the financial settlement, the Ireland/Northern Ireland border and
'other separation issues'.
21 June
Eight Brexit Bills
were outlined in the Queen's speech by the newly elected Government under
Theresa May. These were;
- The EU (Withdrawal)
Bill (also known as the Repeal Bill)
- Customs Bill
- Trade Bill
- Immigration Bill
- Fisheries Bill
- Agriculture Bill
- Nuclear Safeguards
Bill
- International
Sanctions Bills
26 June
Government begins its
publication of a series of papers with a paper on EU nationals potential status
in the UK, as well as their vision for UK citizens in Europe.
13 July
EU (Withdrawal) Bill
is introduced to the House of Commons.
17 July
The second round of
talks between British negotiators and their EU counterparts begin. Discussion
over citizens' rights take place but no other major developments occur.
28 August
The third round of
Brexit negotiations begin accompanied by the publication of a series of
position papers and future partnership papers from the UK. Talks focussed on
citizens' rights, the financial settlement and a range of other issues
including judicial cooperation and customs arrangements.
11 September
EU (Withdrawal)
Bill passes its Second Reading in the Commons unamended. The Bill will now go
through the Committee and Report stages and be voted upon at its 3rd reading
before entering the Lords.
22 September
Prime Minister
Theresa May makes a major speech on Government policy in Florence, outlining
her wish to see a two year transition period during which the UK pays into the
EU budget, a new style of trade agreement for the UK & the EU.
28 September
The fourth round
of negotiations close with continued discussion on citizens' rights, the
financial settlement and Ireland.
Coming up
After the Party Conferences
The
committee stage for the EU Withdrawal Bill begins.
9 October
The fifth round of
negotiations begin.
Over the summer we have been
working to highlight the £5.3 billion that was to be received by England from
the EU until 2020. We have already had a number of important lobbying successes
to ensure that funding for local regeneration continues, including the
Chancellor's commitment to replace the funding in some form.
In July we published a number of pro-active
proposals on behalf of council, with an additional call in our 2017
Budget submission. This received a significant amount of media attention
and we intend to capitalise on this momentum in the coming months.
The LGA will be championing a new
constitutional settlement in a post-Brexit UK, ensuring that powers are
devolved to local communities and beyond Whitehall, Cardiff Bay, Stormont and
Holyrood. We have created a number of work streams to pursue these goals,
including;
- Preserving local
government's formal role in law-making post-Brexit. Local government currently
is formally consulted through the EU parliamentary process and we have made
pro-active discussions with Whitehall about how this role can continue.
- Identifying where
local government is likely to be affected by secondary legislation created or
changed by the Repeal Bill, anticipate where UK regulators may gain new powers
and ensure that consequences on the front-line are understood.
- Identifying how local
government continues to work with the European Union in the future.
We have reviewed all EU laws which
impact on local government services and have identified which policy areas are
in need of urgent review. We have begun a press campaign on this issues to
highlight local government's interest, including calling for;
Councils play a vital role in
protecting their communities from harm and after the referendum we advocated
strongly the role that councils were playing to bring divided communities
together as hate crimes rose.
We have also established the
number of 'continuing EU' workers that deliver vital public services. For
example, 7% of English adult care staff are currently EU nationals. Our role in
analysing the consequences of UK and EU negotiation stances will be very
important over the coming months.
In July 2017, the
government commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to advise on the
economic and social impacts of the UK’s exit from the European Union and also
on how the UK’s immigration system should be aligned with a modern industrial
strategy. There has been a call for evidence with a deadline of late October. Our
submission will be led by the LGA’s Workforce Board.
The onus is on the LGA and
councils to ensure that the differing place based impacts of Brexit are fed
into Whitehall. We have organised a number of local seminars to ensure that
such evidence is presented to DExEU. A summary of our discussions was presented
to the DCLG Brexit Board to ensure that our evidence was formally registered.
The policy papers published by
the Government over the summer have started to define the boundaries of the
negotiations. For example, there are now some high-level proposals on future
customs arrangements, fisheries and agriculture which help define post Brexit
UK.
Consequently, we will be renewing
our call for evidence on a series of specific issues, so that the risk and
opportunities to places are placed firmly on the record. Please contact us on
the details below if you would like to discuss how we approach this.
As the debate on building new
trade relationships continues, we have advocated the help and experience that
councils can offer through their expertise and international connections. The
City Regions and People and Places Board is developing work in this area,
particularly in identifying a problem with multiple and overlapping
initiatives. We are now looking at an alternative model to offer to Government.
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