British Steel and government special measures
The government has taken control of British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant operations. What are the next steps if nationalisation follows?

The financial settlement - often labelled the 'exit bill' or 'divorce bill' - sets out how the UK and EU are settling their outstanding financial commitments to each other.
Brexit: the financial settlement - a summary (349 KB , PDF)
The obligations of the financial settlement arise out of the UK’s participation in the EU budget and broader aspects of its EU membership.
The settlement says which financial commitments will be covered, the methodology for calculating the UK’s share and the payment schedule. The settlement is part of the Withdrawal Agreement, which is the legally binding treaty setting out the negotiated terms of the UK’s departure from the EU. The EU and UK accepted the Withdrawal Agreement in October 2019.
There is no definitive cost to the settlement. The final cost to the UK will depend on future events such as future exchange rates and EU budgets. The Treasury’s latest estimate is that the net cost of the settlement to the UK will be £30.2 billion. £23.8 billion of this had been paid as of December 2023.
The UK and EU agreed some principles for the settlement:
Broadly speaking, the settlement can be split into three components:
Not everything in the settlement fits neatly into these three components. For instance, the UK has agreed to continue to contribute to the EU’s main overseas aid programme – the European Development Fund – until the current programme ends. This programme is funded directly by Member States, rather than through the EU budget. The UK’s contribution counts towards its commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid.
The Library briefing Brexit: the financial settlement – the detail covers the settlement in more depth including topics such as the settlement’s origins, negotiations and the legal form it takes in the Withdrawal Agreement.
Brexit: the financial settlement - a summary (349 KB , PDF)
The government has taken control of British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant operations. What are the next steps if nationalisation follows?
Businesses are required to register for VAT if their turnover of taxable goods and/or services is above a given threshold. This note discusses how the registration threshold has been set in recent years and the debate there has been about whether the threshold is too high or too low.
Although Gibraltar, as a British Overseas Territory, has left the EU, an agreement has been reached which removes border checks between Spain and Gibraltar.