Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 23
23
Accepted
Unprecedented COVID-19 spending scale provides essential, long-term lessons for future government responses.
Conclusion
The scale and nature of the COVID-19 pandemic and the government’s response are unprecedented in recent history, the full cost of which will not be known for many years. By the end of March 2021, the estimated lifetime cost of measures announced as part of the government’s response was £372 billion. The exceptional nature of some of this spending offers unique lessons which it will be essential for government to learn. Some of these lessons can be considered in the near future, others will need to be tracked over ten to twenty years.36
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to continue tracking COVID-related costs, stating it will set out further details after summer 2024, and commits to providing a compendium of relevant COVID scheme evaluations by July 2024 and an update in April on its exercise to distil cross-cutting lessons.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2024 4.2 HM Treasury recognises the value of continuing to track COVID-related costs beyond the Cost Tracker. In addition to the Cost Tracker, some departments publish regular updates on key items of spending, e.g. DCMS published a report on the Cultural Recovery Fund, and DBT publish quarterly repayment data on the largest COVID loan schemes. 4.3 HM Treasury will set out further details on how it will continue to track ongoing COVID-related costs after the publication of the HMT Covid Cost Tracker in summer 2024. This will allow us to understand which areas of COVID spending remain “live” and how best to continue tracking spend in these areas. 4b. PAC recommendation: HM Treasury should, by July 2024, provide a compendium of evaluation of COVID schemes from across Government, and cross cutting lessons to learn. 4.4 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2024 4.5 HM Treasury sees the value in evaluating the success of COVID schemes in achieving policy aims and remains committed to learning and sharing lessons from the response to the pandemic. 4.6 The government has written to the Committee regularly over the last four years explaining where improvements to processes can and have been made. For example, the government's response to recommendation 1 of the Committee's Forty-Sixth Report of Session 2021-22 provided an update on the steps taken to bolster the department’s approach to risk management, including the creation of a Risk Management Strategy and Delivery Plan. 4.7 The then Chief Secretary also wrote to the Treasury Select Committee on 1 April 2021, copied to the Chair of the PAC, explaining the lessons learned by the department, on how responding to the pandemic required the department to administer the spending control framework more flexibly than during ‘normal’ times. HM Treasury continues to refine the spending framework annually to ensure it remains fit for purpose. 4.8 HM Treasury sees the value in bringing together evaluations of COVID schemes, including completed and in-flight evaluations, into a single compendium. HMT is content to provide a list of relevant evaluations in July 2024. 4.9 Separately, HM Treasury has committed to carry out an exercise to distil lessons from the experience of supporting businesses through the pandemic, drawing on existing evaluations and reports, and where relevant including cross-cutting lessons to learn. HM Treasury will provide the Committee with an update on its progress in April.