Select committee: Treasury Committee
Conclusion 20
Eleventh Report - Economic impact of coronavirus: gaps in support and economic analysis
Published 15 Feb 2021
Paragraph 105
Addressed to HM Treasury
Treasury Committee Economic impact of coronavirus All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
While death rates from coronavirus are high, the rationale for Government decisions on social restrictions is well understood by the public. As the vaccines roll-out proceeds and death rates fall, Government decisions on whether or not to lift restrictions will become more finely balanced. We believe that economic analysis and modelling is essential to inform those decisions, alongside evidence of the other necessary infrastructure such as test, trace and isolate, and responses to new variants, being comprehensive and in place to mitigate against the need for a further lockdown.
From: Treasury Committee, Eleventh Report - Economic impact of coronavirus: gaps in support and economic analysis (HC 882), paragraph 105, 15 February 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 26 April 2021 (deadline 15 April 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Treasury's response sets out the support it has provided and extended, says it has addressed the GDP commentary recommendation in the Budget, and says it cannot identify or fairly support limited company directors or change key SEISS eligibility rules.
- On the recommendation for a commentary on GDP as a measure, the Government says it "has addressed this recommendation in the Budget", which features a commentary on international comparisons of economic performance and the use of GDP as a measure.
- The Government has extended CJRS and SEISS "even further, until September", and moved the CJRS employee cut-off date to 2 March 2021 for claims starting on 1 May 2021.
- On limited company directors, the Government says the Directors Income Support Scheme proposal "is not workable in its current form" because HMRC does not hold the necessary information, and cites fraud and error risks, with a draft planning assumption that these "could be as high as 20%".
- On SEISS eligibility, the Government says the 50% self-employed income test and the £50,000 threshold are intended to target support. It does not think a taper is "proportionate", given complexity and the small number who would benefit.