Recommendation 12

The Department told us that it had requested updates on when a decision would be made about accrediting Greensill so that it could decide whether it needed to create a “separate bespoke solution … [if] the process was ultimately going to end in a no”.31 It explained that its interest was because Greensill was a major financier to Liberty Steel which is part of the GFG Alliance and the UK’s third-largest steel manufacturer.32 The Department told us that its steel team was having “very active live discussions” with Liberty Steel, together with a whole range of other steel companies, as Liberty Steel was experiencing financial difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Department explained that it was working out “what the different paths might be to provide Government support to those companies”, and that if the Bank was to accredit Greensill, the Department would not need to run a separate process to develop bespoke support, as Liberty Steel could access loans via CLBILS.33 23 Qq 15, 88 24 C&AG’s Report, Figure 13 25 Q 45 26 Q41 27 Q 18 28 C&AG’s Report, para 12 29 Qq 20–21 30 Qq 24, 70 31 Q 21 32 C&AG’s Report, para 8 33 Q 20 14 Lessons from Greensill Capital: accreditation to business support schemes