Select Committee
Parliament

The 27 remaining countries of the European Union will spend an awful lot of time debating with each other, drawing up their own red lines and "thrash out" their common position to discuss when the British are in the room, Sir Ivan Rogers tells the committee.

Kate Green presses him on how much information on the upcoming negotiation should be confidential and how much should be publicly known.

"Confidentiality will be at a premium," he warns.

"Brussels is very leaky. The institutions are very leaky. Stuff will get out, and incessently in my view."

Sir Ivan advises the committee that they should all expect an "awful lot" of the upcoming negotiation to be discussed publicly.

Select Committee
Parliament

Labour's Kate Green opens the session and asks Sir Ivan Rogers what the key things are to make international negotiations successful.

You have to develop a negotiating style you feel comfortable with, he replies.

The Brexit negotiation will be "unprecedentedly large" covering "huge tracts of Whitehall", he continues.

"It's a negotiation on the scale that we haven't experienced ever, certainly not since the Second World War."

Select Committee
Parliament

Select Committee
Parliament

The committee launched its inquiry into "EU-UK relations in preparation for Brexit" in October.

Members are investigating "how the referendum result has affected the way in which the UK now negotiates with Brussels and how, for the time being, any new EU legislation will be scrutinised and debated in the run up to the UK leaving the EU."

BBC News UK

Image source, AP

The UK's ambassador to the EU, Sir Ivan Rogers, has resigned.

Sir Ivan, appointed to the job by David Cameron in 2013, had been expected to play a key role in Brexit talks expected to start within months.

The government said Sir Ivan had quit early so a successor could be in place before negotiations start.

Read more.

Select Committee
Parliament

Sir William Cash, external (Chair) Conservative

Alan Brown, external Scottish National Party

Geraint Davies, external Labour (Co-op)

Steve Double, external Conservative

Richard Drax, external Conservative

Kate Green, external Labour

Kate Hoey, external Labour

Stephen Kinnock, external Labour

Craig Mackinlay, external Conservative

Dr Paul Monaghan, external Scottish National Party

Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg, external Conservative

Graham Stringer, external Labour

Michael Tomlinson, external Conservative

Mr Andrew Turner, external Conservative

David Warburton, external Conservative

Mike Wood, external Conservative  

The SNP claims Ruth Davidson has lost the plot after she warns the Nationalists against using Brexit as an excuse to "start yet another fratricidal conflict".

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Sir Ivan Rogers will be appearing before the European Scrutiny Committee shortly.

This will be the first time he has spoken publicly since his surprise resignation as the UK's ambassador to the UK last month. 

In his resignation letter, he questioned how prepared the British government was for Brexit and urged civil servants to continue to challenge "muddled thinking" about what could be achieved and how difficult the process would be.

The diplomat, who has since resigned from the civil service, was previously reported to have warned Theresa May that a trade agreement with the rest of the EU after Brexit could take up to a decade. 

His departure - which came about 10 months before his placing was due to end - split opinion among Conservative MPs.

Many Brexiteers welcomed it but others warned his long experience and detailed knowledge of the EU's working would be sorely missed.  

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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The Home Office put pressure on NHS Digital to hand over personal patient details for immigration enforcement purposes, the organisation's former boss has said. 

Kingsley Manning said information on names and addresses was sought by the Home Office, then run by Theresa May, to help keep tabs on migrants.

He told Radio 4's Today that he was "concerned" by the instruction, which he first disclosed in an interview with the Health Service Journal, external, believing that his service should always be a "safe haven" for people's data.

In response, the Home Office said it shared a "limited" amount of information to trace immigration offenders and vulnerable people and to stop people from claiming benefits who were not entitled to do so.

A spokesman said.

Image source, PA

Passengers using cross-country train routes could save up to £260 a journey, under a trial scheme to simplify fares.

The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train operators, says the 16 million fares currently on offer are "baffling" for passengers.

It wants to ensure passengers are offered the cheapest possible fares.

The trial from May will particularly benefit people travelling between Scotland and south-west England.

A traveller buying an off-peak return from Wick, in northern Scotland, to Par, in Cornwall, can currently pay up to £342.50, although in practice few people pay that amount.

However, by buying six separate fares for each leg of the journey, passengers can pay as little as £80 for the same trip. Read more

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

The paper's owner told his editor that David Cameron had pressed for him to be sacked over Brexit stance.

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

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Labour's front bench already appears to be looking ahead to the committee stage of the Article 50 bill, which is due to take place next week.

It has tabled a number of amendments to the Brexit bill which will be considered in detail by MPs, starting on Monday. 

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry told Radio 4's Today it was vital that the opposition kept the pressure up on the government by securing regular updates on the progress of negotiations. 

While the main action of the day is taking place this evening, with MPs voting on a bill to trigger Article 50 from about 19:00 GMT, there is plenty to look forward to before then.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox and former UK Ambassador to the EU Sir Ivan Rogers, who quit last month expressing concerns about the Brexit negotiations, are to be questioned by separate parliamentary committees.

And, of course, at midday Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn will square off at Prime Minister's questions. Expect Brexit and Donald Trump to feature at some point during the weekly session. 

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The government must take "urgent action" to recover more money for treating so-called health tourists, a group of MPs has said.

A Public Accounts Committee report says the system for recouping costs from overseas patients is "chaotic".

Chairwoman Meg Hillier attacked the government's "failure to get a grip" as "simply unacceptable".

The Department of Health said it would be announcing "further steps very shortly to recover up to £500m a year".

Ms Hillier, MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, said the NHS was missing out on "vital funds".

"The public rightly expects the government to enforce the rules, and more can and should be done to recover money," she said.

The report calls on the Department of Health to publish an action plan by June, "setting out specific actions, milestones and performance measures for increasing the amount recovered from overseas visitors".

NHS hospital care in England is free for UK residents, but those visiting from overseas are charged for non-emergency treatment. Read more