Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
7
Government has not yet identified the lessons it will take from its accreditation of Greensill...
Recommendation
Government has not yet identified the lessons it will take from its accreditation of Greensill or from its COVID-19 business support schemes. Our work over the last 18 months has shown that the scale and nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government response are unprecedented in recent history and there is much that government can learn to improve both its ability to respond to emergencies and its business-as-usual service delivery. The Bank’s accreditation of Greensill has highlighted wider lessons about Government’s response to the pandemic, including the need to balance delivering at speed with managing risk, which we have previously reported on. The Bank intends to evaluate its COVID-19 business support schemes to determine whether there are lessons it can learn. It accepts that discussions with international counterparts that have been delivering similar schemes, such as development banks, would be a fruitful theme. The Treasury and the Department similarly intend to review the results of the various inquiries on Greensill’s interaction with Government before drawing any conclusions. However, Government is yet to set out its plans for identifying and applying the lessons in order Lessons from Greensill Capital: accreditation to business support schemes 9 to prevent another situation like Greensill from occurring and improve its ability to respond to future emergencies and economic shocks. We are concerned that if Government does not swiftly formalise this lessons-learned exercise, or conduct it soon enough, it risks losing institutional memory and the necessary lessons will not be learned. Recommendation: The Treasury, the Department and the Bank should jointly work to identify the lessons that need to be learned from its COVID-19 business support schemes and Greensill’s accreditation in particular. By July 2022 they should publish a full lessons-learned report on these schemes, outlining how each lesson will be implemented. This will enable it to be bette
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2022 7.2 The government is committed to building on the experience of the COVID-19 loan schemes, which were designed and delivered in the response to extraordinary economic circumstances brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The government recognises the importance of learning lessons from these schemes to ensure it is as well-positioned as possible to deal with any future economic crisis that might require extraordinary state intervention. 7.3 This will be achieved principally through the full, multi-year evaluation of the schemes, which is being conducted by London Economics and Ipsos MORI. Reports will be published in due course, in line with usual government guidelines. The exact timings will depend on how the evaluation progresses operationally, but it is intended that results will be published no later than Quarter 1 of each year between 2022 and 2024. 7.4 In the meantime, the government will aim to produce a lessons-learned report by Summer 2022. This will draw on any early insights from the evaluation.