Recommendation 27

We have repeatedly raised the need and importance of evaluating the impact of funding provided as part of the measures introduced by government during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Treasury told us that it had undertaken interim evaluations of the schemes that it was responsible for, and that its expectation was that all Accounting Officers undertake evaluations of “material policy”.47 It explained that the Treasury and the Cabinet Office had written to all Departmental accounting officers to make clear that they are expected to undertake evaluations and that they will be checking that Departments have undertaken the evaluation of major policies in the way that is intended. We asked the Treasury how it would ensure and monitor that the standard of evaluations. Our attention was drawn both to the Evaluation Task Force, which was established to set the standard for evaluation and provide support Departments. It explained that the intention was for the Evaluation Taskforce to make sure that “we are driving better lessons learned about how we do good evaluation across Government, as we all as providing some resources”. It further explained that the Evaluation Taskforce would hold Departments to account for the quality of their evaluations. The Treasury emphasised that evaluations will be published.48 Thematic Data Collection