Recommendation 25

When the pandemic started, the government did not have contingency plans for the country-wide emergency business support schemes of the kind that it quickly decided were needed.59 HM Treasury told us that there had not been advance planning for a national lockdown. DBT said frankly that the scale and speed of business support payments that took place had been “inconceivable” and “not within our frame of reference” prior to the pandemic, while HM Treasury described the scale of business grants as “not on anyone’s radar at all”.60 We questioned witnesses about whether a viral illness with widespread economic impacts, both directly and because of public health restrictions, was really so unforeseeable. DBT suggested this was ultimately a matter for the COVID-19 inquiry.61