Bexley Council doesn’t know how many EU nationals it has working for it as Brexit deadlines approach.

Councillors admitted they haven’t yet checked exactly how many employees will have to register for new status.

Council workers could be in a position where they have to apply for “settled status” once we leave the European Union.

As preparations for the split from the EU begin, cabinet member for resources David Leaf was asked last night how many employees are going to have to re-apply for citizenship.

“We don’t have a Stalinist approach of checking the nationality of every individual,” Cllr Leaf said at a scrutiny meeting.

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“But we are feeding this information through, giving communications to staff to make sure they are assured and encouraging those who think they’ll be effected to apply.

“It’s a more nuanced situation than just finding out who is a non-UK EU national.

“There may be some people who are EU nationals that have been here since prior to 1970 will not have to apply, and of course there are Irish nationals as well.

“It’s not just a simple question of identifying and nudging them towards settled status.”

Opposition leader Daniel Francis said the council needs to to encourage positive engagement with staff to come forward and ask for help.

“We don’t know how many of our staff are EU nationals,” he said. “We will have staff that feel they need support because they need to go through a process of applying for citizenship.”

Council officers are expecting to know how many EU nationals there are by the beginning of April.

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It comes as Bexley Council begins preparing for so-called “B-Day”, which could be March 29, April 12 or further in the future.

Councils were given £210k earlier this year for Brexit preparations, along with a checklist calling for assessments on vital local services such as social care.

The checklist reads: “Members will want to be assured that the council has undertaken an assessment to consider the potential impact on your regulatory services, including putting contingency plans in place to respond to increased demand.”