Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 16
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)
By October 2024, 45% of solvent borrowers had made at least one repayment on their loans, with the remaining 55% yet to make a repayment. The 45% had paid the Department £40.9 million in total, less than the £42.1 million it had scheduled to receive by then (97%).39 However, nine borrowers, two on the culture side and seven on the sports side, had also become insolvent, with loans totalling £46.1 million, almost 10% of the total loans awarded of £474 million. These nine insolvencies represented 7.5% of all borrowers against the Department’s expectations in December 2022 of 5% of borrowers failing in the first three years, with up to 14% failing by ten years. The Department also expects that it will not recover between £25 million and £29 million in the capital value of these loans and will miss out on a further £11 million of future interest.40
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.