Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 10
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 originally commissioned PwC in 2022 to assess the different options for the long–term management of its loan book. In line with PwC’s advice, the Department decided to retain management of the loan book in–house, with day–to–day management through the loan agents, supplemented by appointing a managed service provider.15 7 Qq 3–7, 13, 21, 52, 83; C&AG’s Report, paras 11, 2.2 and 2.10 8 C&AG’s Report, paras 3, 9, 1.15 and 2.3 9 Qq 54, 55, 60; C&AG’s Report, paras 10 and 1.16 10 Qq 53, 54, 57 11 Q 43 12 Q 55; Letter from DCMS Permanent Secretary, 25 February 2025 13 Q 63; C&AG’s Report, para 2.7 14 Qq 3, 14–16, 20, 21, 27 15 Letter from DCMS Permanent Secretary, 25 February 2025; C&AG’s Report, paras 1.16 and 3.5 10 The Department subsequently appointed PwC as the managed service provider in February 2023, with a contract running to March 2025, with an optional extension period of up to an additional two years. PwC’s contract included, among other things, its development of a data collection and storage platform to help support management of the loan book.16 The Department subsequently decided to increase the scope of PwC’s work in October 2023, asking PwC to develop a loan management system. As well as supporting the collection and storage of borrowers’ data, it intended the system to build on existing work by Sport England and be rolled out to Arts Council England, to provide a better reporting experience for borrowers, and to include data analysis functions for the loan agents, producing a risk rating and dashboard for each borrower.17. This increase in scope contributed to an increase in the value of PWC’s contract of £900,000 (47%), from £1.9 million to £2.8 million.18
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.