Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 20
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 loaned £218 million in total to 83 sports bodies. Of this £124 million (57%) was loaned to the 13 clubs in the Premiership Rugby League, the top division of professional rugby union.49 We asked the Department whether it was appropriate to give so many loans to one professional sport. The Department told us that there had been no special treatment and it had used the same requirements for all applicants when awarding the loans. Applicants had to be financially solvent before COVID–19 and be able to repay the loans, they had to have exhausted all other commercial support, and they had to be important for the sustainability of their sector.50 We questioned whether clubs were financially solvent, given rugby’s financial problems at the time and the investment by CVC Capital of £200 million in 2019 in the Premiership Rugby League to keep clubs going but the Department assured us that there was an independent board responsible for deciding on loans to the sports sector, which included external members, and that this had assessed the clubs as being financially solvent. The Board had also received information after the loans had been made to keep them abreast of the performance of its loans to the League.51 45 Qq 16, 20, 24–27, 39, 105, 125 46 Qq 119 – 121; Letter from DCMS Permanent Secretary, 25 February 2025 47 C&AG’s Report, para 2.22 48 Qq 3, 44–46 49 C&AG’s Report, paras 1 and 7 1.8 50 Qq 95–98; Letter from Director General for Policy at DCMS, 25 February 2025 51 Qq 96–101, 116; Letter from Director General for Policy at DCMS, 25 February 2025 15
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.