UK spent 4.4 billion pounds on Brexit planning

Britain’s government has spent at least 4.4 billion pounds ($5.6 billion) of taxpayers’ money on preparations to leave the European Union, the public spending watchdog said on Friday, in the first detailed estimate of the cost of Brexit.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said in a report that most of the money was spent on staff costs, building new infrastructure and paying for external advice.

More than half of the money was spent by three departments: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Home Office, along with HM Revenue and Customs.

The NAO said their estimate only focused on the cost of government preparations and excluded future costs such as the 39 billion pound divorce bill agreed with the EU.

Although some ministries had to supplement their spending from existing budgets, the government overall only spent about 70% of the 6.3 billion pounds allocated to cover the cost of preparations, the report said.

In an indication of the upheaval that Brexit caused within government, the report said no fewer than 22,000 government officials were working on Brexit at the peak when Britain was on the verge of leaving the EU without a divorce deal last October.

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