Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted
Central and local government made significant efforts delivering pandemic business grants.
Conclusion
HM Treasury told us Ministers’ goals for the business grant schemes were to ensure sure that businesses could survive the pandemic and people stayed in employment for longer.49 We heard how civil servants in HM Treasury and BEIS (now DBT) made significant efforts to support these goals in difficult circumstances, particularly at the start of the pandemic.50 Officials in local authorities worked very hard in similar circumstances to make millions of payments totalling £22.6 billion. Central government provided local authorities with a further £210 million for the costs of administering the grant schemes, and incurred the costs of its side of the assurance work and a contract to support debt recovery.51
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the finding and commits to publishing the delayed Ipsos evaluation report in late November 2023, after Office of National Statistics clearance. DBT will write to the Committee following publication to set out its conclusions from the evaluation.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Winter 2023 5.2 Publication of the Ipsos evaluation is anticipated in late November 2023. The report has been delayed pending Office of National Statistics clearance. 5.3 Further details will be provided in due course. The department will write to the Committee following publication of the report to set out what it has concluded from the evaluation.