Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 12
12
HM Treasury told us of what it is doing to improve its understanding of the...
Conclusion
HM Treasury told us of what it is doing to improve its understanding of the costs of the pandemic. It has provided departments with instructions on how to gather the information that is needed to make cost estimates of COVID-19 measures.14 It described how it had instigated monthly tracking of information from local authorities, which enabled it to understand what local authorities were spending on and put in place escalation routes for emergency funding that could be transferred quickly. When asked why information to the same level of detail and accuracy could not be gathered from the NHS, we heard that the Department of Health and Social Care has good standardised data capture tools, but data from across the entire group is only consolidated at year end because of the huge scale of the exercise. HM Treasury said that as part of this year’s year-end production of reports on accounts, it would have conversations with all departments about lessons learned and consider what best practice should be, including how the NHS can gather timelier data that can be aggregated more quickly.15 13 Qq 8–12 14 Q 9 15 Qq 25, 28 COVID 19: Cost Tracker Update 11 2 HM Treasury’s understanding and management of risks to public finances through the pandemic COVID-19 financial risks
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation Recommendation implemented 2.2 HM Treasury has continued to work closely with departments to develop robust methodologies for identifying and capturing the cost of COVID-19 in support of the latest publication of the cost tracker. The quality of the data has improved in the September 2021 update following this continued collaboration. 2.3 The government set out its spending plans and choices up to 2024-25 in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 document. This included a comprehensive recovery plan. As part of the Spending Review 2021 process, departments provided HM Treasury with information on costings of interventions to support the response to, and recovery from, the COVID-19 pandemic, including an assessment of the strategic, economic, commercial, financial and management cases for investment through supporting business cases. This process prioritised building back better from COVID-19 by investing in public services, jobs and growth, and the transition to Net Zero. This included providing funding for services most affected by COVID-19 – such as the health and education systems – to continue to respond to the impacts of the virus.