Thirty-Eighth Report - COVID-19 cost tracker update

Select Committee

Public Accounts Committee HC 640 23 February 2022

Report Status Government responded

Conclusions & Recommendations 19 items (11 recs)

Source View on Parliament website

Government Response (AI assessment · 18 of 19 classified)

Accepted 8

Accepted in Part 2

Acknowledged 5

Not Addressed 3

Government response

Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirty Eighth report from Session 2021-22 · published 28 Apr 2022

Read the government response ↗ Response on the tracker

Recommendations & Conclusions

8 results

2 Recommendation Accepted

We are concerned that HM Treasury does not intend to adequately monitor and update the...

Recommendation

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 … Read more 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 cost-tracker has enabled Parliament and the public to have full visibility over what government has spent and committed to spend in response to the pandemic and the financial risks to the public purse. Government estimates that it will lose £21 billion as a result of loans that it does not expect will be repaid. HM Treasury will know more about how much will be lost in connection to these loan schemes over time as more repayment data is received. HM Treasury has committed to conduct a routine review of material changes to the estimated costs, including updating the costs associated with the COVID-19 loan schemes and some public services measures, where these can be reliably attributed to COVID-19. However, it has not specified which elements of government’s response to the pandemic will be included in these updates, what will constitute material changes to estimated costs, or how the costs of those elements which are excluded will continue to be monitored and Departments held to account for spending taxpayers’ money. From 2022–23 onwards, funding to tackle issues arising from COVID-19 will not be ring-fenced. Some of the costs currently included in the cost tracker will form part of departments’ ongoing activities. 6 COVID-19 cost tracker update Recommendation: As part of its Treasury Minute response, HM Treasury should explain how, when, and which subsets of the data captured by the NAO in the COVID-19 cost tracker it will continue to update. This should also address how loan book commitments, including those made under the Culture Recovery Fund, and any associated liabilities, such as estimated write-off costs under the Bounce Back Loans Scheme, will be moni Show less

Government Response Summary

The Treasury will publish annual updates on the COVID-19 cost tracker data for the next two years, focusing on material changes reliably attributed to COVID-19, and will then review the need for further updates.

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3 Recommendation Accepted

HM Treasury does not yet know how much money has been lost to fraud and...

Recommendation

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 … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government stated that each department is responsible for estimating fraud and error in the schemes it administers and that the department wrote to the Committee on 31 March 2021 to respond to these questions and that latest estimates are set out in departments’ 2020-21 Annual Report and Accounts (ARAs).

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4 Recommendation Accepted

HM Treasury has not set out what lessons it has learnt from the government’s response...

Recommendation

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. … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government stated that the department wrote to the Committee on 31 March 2021 outlining lessons and actions that have been taken across public spending, finance and economic support schemes.

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9 Recommendation Accepted

Across government’s response to COVID-19, there are also other substantial loan books that have no...

Recommendation

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 … Read more

Government Response Summary

HM Treasury will continue to conduct a routine review of COVID-19 costs, including the Culture Recovery Fund, and publish annual updates for the next two years, after which the Treasury will review what is still required.

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10 Recommendation Accepted

In its letter to us after our evidence session, HM Treasury recognised the helpful role...

Recommendation

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 … Read more

Government Response Summary

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11 Conclusion Accepted

We examined fraud and error across government in 2021.

Conclusion

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 … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government acknowledges the committee's finding and states that each department is responsible for estimating fraud and error in its schemes, with estimates published in Annual Report and Accounts, indicating existing processes address the issue.

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12 Conclusion Accepted

We asked HM Treasury what its current assessment of fraud and error across government was,...

Conclusion

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 … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government acknowledges the committee's finding and states that departments are responsible for estimating fraud and error, with estimates published in Annual Report and Accounts, indicating that existing processes are in place for assessment.

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17 Conclusion Accepted

We examined the initial lessons that can be learned from government’s response to the pandemic...

Conclusion

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 … Read more

Government Response Summary

The government agrees with the committee's observation about the need to learn pandemic lessons promptly and states it has already outlined lessons and actions taken in a letter to the committee dated March 2021.

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