The public spending watchdog has been asked by an influential Commons committee to examine the estimated £39 billion Brexit divorce bill.
Treasury Select Committee chairwoman Nicky Morgan has asked the National Audit Office (NAO) to consider the "reasonableness of this payment" and assess how the figure was arrived at.
In her letter to NAO chief Sir Amyas Morse, she said the spending watchdog could provide assurance to Parliament by scrutinising the financial settlement.
Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs in December that the financial settlement as part of the Brexit process would be between £35 billion and £39 billion - as long as a deal on a future trading relationship was agreed.
READ MORE: Most Scots want to curb EU immigration after Brexit
Former Cabinet minister Mrs Morgan, who was a passionate campaigner for Remain during the referendum, said: "Various wide-ranging sums for the UK's withdrawal payment to the EU have been bandied about.
"Last month, the Prime Minister told Parliament that the so-called Brexit divorce bill will be £35-39 billion.
"Parliament must be able to scrutinise the reasonableness of this bill.
"Accordingly, I have written to Sir Amyas to request that the NAO examines the withdrawal payment, including the assumptions and methodologies used."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel