Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 14
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 has conducted minimal analysis of the costs of managing the loans over their lifetime, with no assessment of the factors that might increase costs or reduce income. It forecast that it would spend £17.3 million over the three years to March 2025, which we calculated would already represent 22% of its total expected income from interest on its loans.28 Beyond that, it expects its one–off costs to fall after the introduction of its loan management system and its ongoing management costs to come down, with overall costs lower from 2025–26.29 However, the Department had only carried out detailed forecasts of the costs of running the loan for the current Spending Review period ending in 2024–25, and had not estimated its costs beyond March 2025.30 The Department informed us that it had now been given its spending settlement to March 2026. It therefore has an expectation of the costs of running the scheme in 2025–26, and was in the process of undertaking its business planning for this year.31
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.