Select committee: Treasury Committee
Recommendation 22
Eleventh Report - Economic impact of coronavirus: gaps in support and economic analysis
Published 15 Feb 2021
Paragraph 107
Addressed to HM Treasury
Treasury Committee Economic impact of coronavirus All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We recommend that in order to provide some certainty to businesses, as well as to the general public, the forthcoming Government plan for taking the country out of lockdown should set out criteria of how and when it will lift restrictions— this could be in terms of the prevalence and R rate of the virus. We recognise that this would be a contingent plan, based on the stages only being activated after milestones are met, with the Government providing the maximum possible certainty. Alongside this plan, the Treasury should also provide the combined economic and epidemiological modelling to support it, and show how it would best optimise health and economic outcomes.
From: Treasury Committee, Eleventh Report - Economic impact of coronavirus: gaps in support and economic analysis (HC 882), paragraph 107, 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.