Our work on the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that there are important lessons to be learnt to improve government’s ability to respond to future emergencies and its business-as-usual service delivery. In 2021, as part of our Initial lessons from the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic inquiry, we highlighted the importance of being clear about risk appetite and risk tolerance, particularly as government was having to make decisions quickly at the start of the pandemic.77 Similarly, in our 2020 report COVID-19: Bounce Back Loan Scheme we found that the Treasury, the Bank and the Department prioritised delivery speed over all other aspects of value for money, exposing the taxpayer to potentially huge losses.78 The NAO report on the Bank’s accreditation of Greensill Capital found that in response to the policy need to deliver money to businesses at pace during the pandemic, the Bank streamlined its lender accreditation process. But it concluded that had the Bank applied a less streamlined accreditation process with more due diligence, it is possible that the situation could have been avoided.79