Welcome to the July edition of the Brexit Bulletin, our first under a new Prime Minister and Cabinet.

 After a relatively savage clear out of Theresa May’s Cabinet, new appointments of relevance include:

 Chancellor of the Exchequer – Sajid Javid MP

Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy – Andrea

Leadsom MP

Secretary of State for Exiting the EU – Stephen Barclay MP

Secretary of State for International Trade – Liz Truss MP

 You can add colleagues to our mailing list by logging into the members’ area of the BPIF website or contacting your Regional Director.

In this month’s Bulletin:

1. Brexit update

2. Scottish Government Brexit Support Grant

3. Settlement Scheme: evidence of residence

4. Stockpiling advice from the UK Warehousing Association (UKWA)

5. Latest publications

Brexit update

There’s now less than 100 days to go until the Brexit deadline of 31 October. That’s a short amount of time for the new Prime Minister to agree a ‘better’ deal than the one his predecessor took two and a half years to make. Especially considering the EU has repeatedly said that the existing withdrawal agreement – with its Northern Ireland backstop element – is not up for renegotiation. From EU leaders’ point of view, the only way to make the backstop redundant is for the U.K. to opt to stay in the EU’s single market and the customs union. Johnson has pledged not to do this – after all, ‘Brexit (still) means Brexit’.

Planning for a no-deal has been stepped up in the event that a new agreement can’t be reached, and Treasury sources have told the BBC they expect more than £1bn of extra funding to be made available later this week for no-deal planning and preparation. Meanwhile, no-deal prospects have caused the pound to fall to its lowest level in two years.

Remember, no-deal Brexit information can be found here.

If an agreement with Brussels can’t be reached, and Parliament continues to block a no-deal Brexit (so far Labour, the Scottish National party, Liberal Democrats and up to 40 backbench Tories are all pledging to fight a no-deal Brexit) a General Election could be on the cards.

Finally, we all know play is as important as work! If you’re worried about how Brexit could affect your summer holidays (and beyond), check out the helpful flowchart at the bottom of this bulletin.

Scottish Government Brexit Support Grant 

The Support Grant provides £2000-£4000 to SMEs in Scotland to manage the impacts of Brexit on businesses. It can be used for:

– Brexit impact scenario planning

– Legal and contractual issues

– Modelling cashflow

– Modelling impact of changing customs/tariffs/VAT

– Exploring supply chain issues and opportunities

And much more.

You can view what else the Support Grant can be used for here.

If you're in Wales, we've previously published information about the Welsh Government's Brexit Resilience Fund that you can view by clicking here.

Settlement Scheme: evidence of residence 

If you have new staff who are struggling to prove they’ve been a resident in the UK, the Government has published a list of evidence that can be provided. In the vast majority of cases, the Government will confirm residence using an automatic check of tax records. However, the individual can submit other forms of evidence if necessary. They will not need to provide evidence for their entire UK residence – just enough to show whether they qualify for settled or pre-settled status. They should only need to provide one document dated in the last six months to be granted pre-settled status.

Applications are currently taking one to four days to process. 900,000 have been submitted so far, meaning approx. 2.5 million EU citizens in the UK have not yet applied.

You can view the evidence of UK residence here. 

Stockpiling advice from the UK Warehousing Association (UKWA)

The UKWA has warned that warehouses in the UK are currently under pressure, running on full capacity with little prospect of more space becoming available over the coming months.

You can download the statement on the warehousing shortage from UKWA below. 

Latest publications

We've trawled through the latest publications about Brexit of particular relevance to the printing industry.

You can view these here. 

For further information, please contact Carys Davis, Public Affairs Adviser, at [email protected]