Thirty-Eighth Report - COVID-19 cost tracker update

As part of our previous examination of the cost tracker in May 2021, we concluded that government’s ability to achieve value for money was compromised during the pandemic by poor quality impact assessments and Accounting Officer assessments.33 To address this, … Read more As part of our previous examination of the cost tracker in May 2021, we concluded that government’s ability to achieve value for money was compromised during the pandemic by poor quality impact assessments and Accounting Officer assessments.33 To address this, we recommended that HM Treasury should review major COVID-related spending decisions to identify cases where decisions made had resulted in poor value for money. We recommended that it should report its findings to us by the end of 2021, and use the lessons learnt to produce guidance to minimise the risk of this happening in future.34 HM Treasury shared a copy of its response to our recommendations with us ahead of our evidence session. In its response, HM Treasury disagreed with our recommendation. While HM Treasury agreed that lessons learnt from the pandemic should inform its future approach to similar situations, it asserted that maintaining a proper distinction of roles between Accounting Officers, HM Treasury and the NAO was the best way to do this.35 Show less

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We therefore asked HM Treasury what it was doing to identify and address some of the issues raised by our and the NAO’s work examining the response to the pandemic, for example around the trade-offs between acting at speed and … Read more We therefore asked HM Treasury what it was doing to identify and address some of the issues raised by our and the NAO’s work examining the response to the pandemic, for example around the trade-offs between acting at speed and ensuring value-for- money.36 HM Treasury said that, although it had disagreed with our recommendation, it agreed that it should review major COVID-related spending decisions and “consider very carefully value for money”.37 It told us that it did not intend to carry out a full formal audit of all COVIDrelated expenditure and then reach a value-for-money judgement on all programmes. However, when we asked whether there was a process for assessing previous spending decisions and learning from them, it told us that ahead of new funding decisions, for example on NHS Test and Trace and the vaccines programme, it reviewed and learned lessons from departments’ previous spending.38 Show less

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We are concerned that HM Treasury does not intend to adequately monitor and update the ongoing cost of COVID-19 to the taxpayer. Monitoring the forecast costs and actual spend related to COVID-19 is crucial for Parliamentary scrutiny and for holding departments to account for their use of taxpayers’ money. The …

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HM Treasury does not yet know how much money has been lost to fraud and error across government’s response to COVID-19. Our previous work on government’s response to COVID-19 has revealed that the risk of fraud and error to public finances has risen substantially during the pandemic. As a result, …

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HM Treasury has not set out what lessons it has learnt from the government’s response to COVID-19 and how it will apply these in future. The pandemic required government to respond rapidly to emerging issues across all areas of society. It is essential that government learns from its response to …

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Based on the fourth iteration of the COVID-19 cost tracker (the cost tracker) published by the Comptroller and Auditor General in September 2021, we took evidence from HM Treasury about the costs of government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.1 In May 2021, we took evidence from HM Treasury on the …

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In our evidence session on 17th November 2021, we observed that the cost tracker had supported Parliamentary scrutiny of departments and enabled us to hold government to account.9 We have found the model used in the cost tracker very useful, and it has helped in the ongoing exercise of monitoring …

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We noted that the public inquiry into government’s handling of COVID-19 was due to start in the spring or summer of 2022, and that understanding how money was being spent was likely to be an important part of this inquiry. We therefore asked HM Treasury how it would ensure that …

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HM Treasury told us that, during the pandemic, it had made some very significant sums of money available at short notice in conditions of great uncertainty. This funding was ring-fenced so that, if it was not needed for the intended purpose, it would not be spent on other things.13 HM …

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HM Treasury told us that one element of the cost tracker it would definitely continue to monitor and report on was the cost of the various loan and grant schemes where the true cost will only be known over time.18 Government has guaranteed or issued loans worth a total of …

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Across government’s response to COVID-19, there are also other substantial loan books that have no estimated write-offs as at the September 2021 update to the cost tracker, but which government will have to manage until the loans are repaid. For example, as at the September 2021 update to the cost …

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In its letter to us after our evidence session, HM Treasury recognised the helpful role that the NAO cost tracker has played in improving transparency on the cost of COVID-19, as well as its role as the definitive source of information on the public expenditure costs of the pandemic. It …

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We examined fraud and error across government in 2021. We found that government had introduced many vital support schemes in response to the pandemic, but that these had substantially increased the risk of fraud and error to public finances and the taxpayer was expected to lose billions of pounds as …

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We asked HM Treasury what its current assessment of fraud and error across government was, given the availability of the new data. HM Treasury told us that its upfront estimates on losses due to fraud and error were broadly in line with HMRC’s most 25 Committee of Public Accounts, Fraud …

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In our report in June 2021, we recommended that HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office set out how they would ensure that departments implemented a zero-tolerance approach to fraud and error following the pandemic and ensure taxpayers’ money was recovered.28 We therefore asked HM Treasury what it was doing to …

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The COVID-19 pandemic placed increased pressure on government departments to respond to a crisis while continuing to provide their business-as-usual services. The Comptroller and Auditor General told us that the NAO had now, for the most part, completed its examination of the initial schemes that were implemented at pace in …

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We examined the initial lessons that can be learned from government’s response to the pandemic in June 2021 based on 20 evidence sessions on various aspects of the government’s response. In our report, we set out our views on what government can 32 Q 5 33 Committee of Public Accounts, …

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HM Treasury informed us that it had conducted a lessons learned exercise with Accounting Officers and it planned to update Managing Public Money in December

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We asked HM Treasury what it was doing to ensure that, if emergency support such as business support schemes or loans were needed in future, those responsible would have the information they needed to act quickly, informed by lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. HM Treasury explained that it was able …

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