Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 27
27
We asked what lessons had been learnt or what could have been done differently as...
Conclusion
We asked what lessons had been learnt or what could have been done differently as a result of Greensill’s access to these taxpayer-backed schemes. The Treasury told us that it wanted to review all the reports and inquiries, such as the Boardman Review and reports by Select Committees, “in the round” before coming to any conclusions specifically on Greensill. The Department described a positive lesson from the Greensill experience that 71 Qq 147–149, 150–152 72 Press Release - July 6, 2021 - British Business Bank (british-business-bank.co.uk) 73 Qq 145–147 74 Q 152; C&AG’s Report, para 7 75 Q 123 76 Qq 153–4 77 Committee of Public Accounts, Initial lessons from the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Thirteenth Report of the Session 2021–22, HC 175, 25 July 2021 78 Committee of Public Accounts, COVID-19: Bounce Back Loan Scheme, Thirty-Third Report of the Session 2019–21, HC 687, 16 December 2020 79 C&AG’s Report, para 20 Lessons from Greensill Capital: accreditation to business support schemes 19 the “careful auditing, the fast reaction to stop new lending and the process of suspending the guarantee” led to a situation where it was hopeful it had correctly protected public money.80
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.