During 2020, the Department had appointed two of its arm’s–length bodies, Arts Council England and Sport England, as its loan agents for the day–to–day monitoring and management of the loans, including relationships with borrowers. However, both Arts Council England and Sport England were new to loan management on this scale and were initially short on loan–specific expertise, such as knowledge of loan restructuring and the use of digital technology to identify problem cases.8 The Department told us that it had subsequently appointed PwC as the managed service provider for its loan book in February 2023 as it required additional specialist help.9