Recommendations & Conclusions
24 items
2
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
The value of the cost tracker is lessened by poor data from some government departments and functions. The level of completeness and accuracy of COVID- related data is variable across government departments. Several departments are still not able to provide a robust assessment of their COVID-related activity, or the extent …
Government response. 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 2.2 HM Treasury has continued to work closely with departments to develop robust methodologies for identifying and capturing the cost of COVID-19 in support of the latest publication of the …
HM Treasury
3
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
The COVID-19 response means government will be exposed to significant financial risks for decades to come. As a consequence of responding quickly to the pandemic, government has taken on significant financial risks that are spread across multiple government departments and schemes. While we acknowledge that 6 COVID 19: Cost Tracker …
Government response. 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 3.2 The government is already committed to active management of fiscal risks, including risks stemming from its COVID-19 response. HM Treasury surveys these from the centre of government, including through …
HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
Achieving value for money from government expenditure during COVID-19 is being compromised by poor quality impact assessments and Accounting Officer assessments. Government accepted the need for a higher risk appetite in order to make decisions and move funding more quickly for COVID-related measures, adapting the Managing public money principles to …
Government response. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2021 4.2 The fundamental principles and the accountability framework set out in Managing Public Money have proved enduring through the pandemic. However, HM Treasury recognises that accounting officers …
HM Treasury
5
Recommendation
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
The total value of government-backed loans has increased greatly during the crisis. To provide businesses with access to funding quickly during the pandemic, government launched a number of loan schemes, delivered by private sector COVID 19: Cost Tracker Update 7 providers under the direction of the British Business Bank. The …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 HM Treasury has provided the resources for the British Business Bank (BBB) to deliver the ongoing administration of the government loan schemes and manage the associated risks to the …
HM Treasury
6
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
It will become increasingly important to distinguish between spending that is aimed at economic and societal recovery from COVID-19, from spending in direct response to COVID-19. The cost tracker suggests that around 92% of the cost of government’s COVID-19 measures is categorised as being in direct response to the pandemic, …
Government response. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 6.2 The government set out its spending plans and choices up to 2024-25 in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 document. These plans prioritise building back better from the …
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
On the basis of the COVID-19 cost tracker published by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from HM Treasury about the costs of government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.1
Government response. 1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 1.2 HM Treasury has worked closely with the National Audit Office (NAO) to support the publication of each version of the COVID-19 cost tracker and has shared information to help …
HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury told us that it is tracking and controlling public expenditure on COVID-19 in the same way that it does routinely for all public expenditure, through regular monthly reporting of departments’ spending, which it described as a robust mechanism for tracking spend. It puts more focus and effort on …
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury has, over the last few months, started to identify items of spending that are COVID-related, and designate them as such.9 It described how for some areas of expenditure it is straightforward to do so, for example, the business support grant schemes. For other areas, it is not possible …
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury confirmed that it regards the NAO’s £372 billion estimate of the total cost of the government’s response to the pandemic to be a good representation of the total gross lifetime costs of policy decisions driven by COVID-19, and a reliable snapshot based on what is known now. It …
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
The cost tracker purposefully excludes some financial decisions that government has taken as a result of the pandemic to support the recovery from the pandemic, for example the corporation tax super deduction and increases in capital spending that were announced in Budget 2020. It also does not include the effect …
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
We challenged HM Treasury on why several departments are not able to provide the NAO with a complete assessment of the costs and spend of their COVID-related activity. We heard how there are measures for which estimating the lifetime cost is difficult because of a lack of evidence upon which …
Government response. 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 2.2 HM Treasury has continued to work closely with departments to develop robust methodologies for identifying and capturing the cost of COVID-19 in support of the latest publication of the …
HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury told us of what it is doing to improve its understanding of the costs of the pandemic. It has provided departments with instructions on how to gather the information that is needed to make cost estimates of COVID-19 measures.14 It described how it had instigated monthly tracking of …
Government response. 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 2.2 HM Treasury has continued to work closely with departments to develop robust methodologies for identifying and capturing the cost of COVID-19 in support of the latest publication of the …
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury reiterated what the Chief Secretary to the Treasury set out in his letter of 1 April 2021 to the Chair of the Treasury Committee: that the COVID-19 pandemic is a national health emergency that has required a response by government without precedent in terms of speed and scale.16 …
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury used the example of vaccines development to explain how government took on necessary risk, in this case to develop vaccines much more quickly than would usually have been the case. The rapid development of a vaccine was central to dealing with the pandemic and recovering from it, and …
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury acknowledged in his letter of 1 April 2021 that a consequence of an enhanced risk appetite is that risks are more likely to crystalize. A clear example of risks from the government’s approach materialising is the 10,000 shipping containers of personal protective equipment (PPE) …
HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury told us that over the pandemic it had kept the same basic framework for public expenditure decisions, with a strong emphasis on value for money, but that it had adapted it and made it more flexible to recognise the circumstances. In some areas, value for money was best …
HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury explained that it told accounting officers that throughout the pandemic they remained responsible for assuring themselves that public money was being properly spent, for applying the principles of Managing public money and for accounting to Parliament for their spending.24 HM Treasury considers that Managing public money has worked …
Government response. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2021 4.2 The fundamental principles and the accountability framework set out in Managing Public Money have proved enduring through the pandemic. However, HM Treasury recognises that accounting officers …
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury acknowledged that the process of undertaking impact assessments for some major COVID-19 schemes had been challenging and hampered by poor data and evidence.28 It used the example of the excess stockpiles of PPE to illustrate that big lessons need to be learned.29 This fits with a trend the …
Government response. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: December 2021 4.2 The fundamental principles and the accountability framework set out in Managing Public Money have proved enduring through the pandemic. However, HM Treasury recognises that accounting officers …
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
The NAO’s COVID-19 cost tracker presents a current estimate of the cost of write- offs of government-backed loans made in response to the pandemic of £26 billion.31 HM Treasury confirmed that it recognises this amount as a good snapshot based on current information on what the total losses might be.32 …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 HM Treasury has provided the resources for the British Business Bank (BBB) to deliver the ongoing administration of the government loan schemes and manage the associated risks to the …
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury referred specifically to the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, which accounts for £22.8 billion of the forecast total write-off costs of £26 billion.36 It told us that the first loan schemes had been too slow to grant loans to small businesses with no borrowing history and therefore no existing …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 HM Treasury has provided the resources for the British Business Bank (BBB) to deliver the ongoing administration of the government loan schemes and manage the associated risks to the …
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury told us that it is currently considering its longer-term approach to the management of COVID-19 legacy schemes, including the outstanding loans to businesses. It has not yet decided whether there is benefit in consolidating loan books across departments. As part of its overall monitoring of the economy, it …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 HM Treasury has provided the resources for the British Business Bank (BBB) to deliver the ongoing administration of the government loan schemes and manage the associated risks to the …
HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
The NAO’s latest COVID-19 cost tracker estimates that around 90% of the projected cost of the pandemic will be spent on the government’s response to COVID-19, and around 10% on the recovery phase.40 HM Treasury explained that it is extremely difficult to categorise much COVID-related spending as either part of …
Government response. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 6.2 The government set out its spending plans and choices up to 2024-25 in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 document. These plans prioritise building back better from the …
HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury assured us that in broad terms government’s pre-pandemic plans and programmes have remained largely in place. It told us that the areas where there has been significant reprioritisation or pausing have tended to be the ones that have been badly affected by COVID-19, the most obvious example being …
HM Treasury
24
Conclusion
Twelfth Report - COVID 19: Cost Tracker…
HM Treasury expected more reliable information on the cost of the recovery to become available around September 2021, as the uptake and repayments against major schemes like the Bounce Back Loans Scheme become clearer.45 It told us that the government will give further details on its plans for recovering from …
HM Treasury