Recommendation 9

When it intervened, the Department required a Ministerial Direction due to the need to act urgently and a lack of information for the Department’s Accounting Officer to be satisfied that the Accounting Officer standards were met.25 Its impact assessment, concluded earlier this year, found the intervention does in fact have a net social value, but that costs would continue to increase until the intervention had ended.26 As at March 2026, spending was expected to reach £642 million by 30 June 2026, including adviser costs.27 By 18 June 2026, the Department had provided £555 million funding and spent £15 million on advisers and £2.6 million on Department staff costs to 31 January 2026.28 When asked how much money the taxpayer would need to provide in total, the Department could only say that it would take it time to make British Steel a viable company.29