Lord Bowness – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bowness on 2016-05-18.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of leaving the EU on businesses that trade with the EU, and what guidance they have given to affected businesses about how they might communicate that impact.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Her Majesty’s Treasury published a comprehensive analysis of benefits and costs of membership of a reformed EU and the alternatives on 18 April. This included boxes detailing the impact of EU membership on key business sectors such as financial services, aerospace and pharmaceuticals.
According to this analysis, key sectors would be worse off due to reduced access to the Single Market. For example, losing customs-free movement of goods could cause customs delays. In time-sensitive industries, each hour of customs delay can reduce trade by 5%. Treasury analysis also provides a sectoral breakdown of the 3.3 million jobs which are linked to trade with the EU.
The Prime Minister has spoken about the benefits of EU membership at a number of businesses throughout the UK. The transcripts of these are available on the gov.uk website.
