Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 5
20th Report - DCMS management of COVID-19 loans
Published 2 Apr 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee DCMS management of COVID-19 loans All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The Department is displaying an inconsistent approach to its engagement with professional sports. The majority of the Department’s loans to sport bodies went to professional sport. For example, 57% (£124 million) of the Department’s sports loans went to top–tier, professional rugby union clubs in the Premiership Rugby League. The Department insists that these clubs were financially viable when it awarded the loans, despite public reports at the time to the contrary and the subsequent insolvency of three of the clubs by June 2023, owing the Department £41.6 million. The Department says it took a common approach when lending to borrowers in different sports, but, in our view, its subsequent actions display different approaches in practice. It has appointed consultants and engaged with the Rugby Football Union, the Premier Rugby League and CVC Capital Partners on the future of rugby union. In contrast, the Department was less certain about the extent of engagement by itself and Sport England with professional basketball over proposed structural changes to the game that could put at risk repayment of the last outstanding loans from four of the 11 professional clubs that received loans. When the Department did provide us with more information, it was clear to us that it has been less engaged with basketball than with professional rugby union. recommendation The Department should work with Sport England to compile a strategy for engaging with borrowers in future in order to ensure that they engage consistently and fairly with different sports as more borrowers start to repay their loans. 6
From: Public Accounts Committee, 20th Report - DCMS management of COVID-19 loans (HC 364), 2 April 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twentieth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twentieth report from Session 2024-25
Published 10 July 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with the Committee's recommendations on loan book management, the loan management system, long-term options, repayment forecasts, borrower management and borrower engagement, but disagrees with the recommendation on rugby union accountability.
- On long-term options, the government agrees and says a strategic review, to be completed in 2025-26, will assess options "including, but not limited to, a sale or partial sale of the loan book".
- On repayment estimates, the government agrees, with a target date of December 2025. It says further cost, repayment and insolvency modelling will be done through its strategic review.
- On the PwC contract, the government agrees and says the full loan management system functionality was implemented in March 2025 "for under £300,000". The PwC contract has been extended for a further year.
- On rugby union accountability, the government disagrees with the recommendation. It "continues to believe" accountability is best achieved by a Director General within the department as Additional Accounting Officer, rather than a Permanent Secretary from another department.