The National Audit Office (NAO) has today launched a
cost tracker to
provide an independent summary of the estimated costs of the
government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic so
far.
The cost tracker builds on the NAO’s Overview of the UK
government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic which was
published in May. It brings together data from across the UK
government to provide a list of the measures announced in
response to the pandemic, the estimated cost of each measure and
how much government has spent so far.
Earlier this year, the NAO reported that between 31
January and 4 May government had committed over £120 billion of
spending in response to the pandemic. Today’s update identifies
that, up to the 7 August, government had announced over 190
measures, which have a total estimated cost of £210 billion. The
NAO estimates government has so far spent over £70 billion, with
a number of measures still to be fully
implemented.2
The purpose of the tracker is to increase
transparency and assist Parliament and the public in scrutinising
government spending on the pandemic response. The NAO is
publishing it in its role as the UK’s independent public spending
watchdog and will update it periodically. It will also be used to
inform the NAO’s programme of work to report on the government’s
response to the pandemic.3
Notes for
Editors
-
The cost tracker can be found here.
-
This figure is the amount the NAO knows government
has spent on these measures so far, where data are available,
rounded to the nearest £10bn, to allow for differences in the
accuracy of the underlying costs. The full data set covers
health and social care; other public services and emergency
responses; support for individuals; support for businesses;
other support. It identifies what departments have told us
about the measures government has announced, how much they
expect each will cost and how much they have spent on each. The
data are subject to limitations as outlined in the Limitations
of Data section of the cost tracker
webpage.
-
Details of our full programme of COVID-19 work,
including published reports and work in progress, can be found
here.
