PAC slams level of financial risk in Covid response

The Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has published two reports – Initial lessons from the government Covid response and a cost tracker update. The committee said that in May this year, the lifetime cost of the steps taken by government had reached £372bn and that a single, cross-government framework should be developed to monitor and manage the risks to the public finances stemming from the Covid response.

MPs were concerned that the stockpile of personal protective equipment (PPE) was not fit for purpose, despite the government spending more than £10bn on supplies. The Department of Health and Social Care had ordered 32 billion items of PPE by May, with 11 billion distributed, 12.6 billion stored in the UK, and 8.4 billion on order and not arrived in the UK. The current stockpile was costing the Department £6.7m a week to store, and 10,000 shipping containers of PPE had not been unpacked.

There was significant risk of waste – more than 2 billion items had been found unsuitable for use in medical settings. This was worth £2bn of taxpayers’ money, and five times the estimate given to the committee in January 2021. There was no plan to distribute or repurpose the items that are suitable for medical use.

The Initial lessons report called on the government to update the committee quarterly with detailed figures on the PPE stockpile, including items received, quality assured and distributed, the number that had failed quality assurance, and the number and cost of items held in central stock.

Longstanding IT issues had hampered the government’s ability to take well-informed decisions – and address issues as they arise – and led to problems with the shielding programme, for example. The PAC called on the Cabinet Office and the Treasury to set out, by the end of October, how they plan to address data and IT issues in the spending review.

The PAC also said ministers had repeatedly failed to show how key decisions had been made, undermining accountability and public trust. More than 1,600 contracts with values over £25,000 had been awarded by the end of July 2020, but only 25% were published within the 90-day target. The committee asked the Department to set out details of contracts awarded that are yet to be published, by 31 October. The achievement of value for money has been compromised by poor quality impact and accounting officer assessments, the committee added.

PAC chair Meg Hillier (pictured) said the committee was clear that the government must learn lessons now and not wait for the promised public inquiry, which is expected to begin next spring and last years.

She added: ‘With eye watering sums of money spent on Covid measures so far the government needs to be clear, now, how this will be managed going forward, and over what period of time.

‘As well as monitoring procurement and its effectiveness through the next few years, the PAC will be watching this spending and risk for decades to come. If coronavirus is with us for a long time, the financial hangover could leave future generations with a big headache.’