the times | Wednesday February 23 2022 2GM 19News
The Treasury must do more to account
for the £370 billion cost of pandemic
interventions, MPs have said, after the
government “risked and lost unaccept-
able billions of taxpayers’ money”.
A report from the Public Accounts
Committee said the Treasury must be
more transparent about the “substan-
tial, long-term financial risks” to which
taxpayers have been exposed, includ-
ing enormous sums lost to fraud and
error.
According to the National Audit
Office’s Covid-19 cost tracker, the
government has spent £261 billion on
374 measures. These are expected to
cost a total of £370 billion over their
lifetime, which is up to 20 years
The committee criticised a lack of
transparency in the Treasury’s plans
publicly to account for the interven-
tions, as well as opacity over investment
in battling multibillion-pound frauds.
Dame Meg Hillier, chairwoman of
the committee, told The Times she was
concerned the government would not
commit to continue supporting the
tracker, which provides a central ledger
for the costs of the pandemic, and was
not clear enough about what will be
included in the future. “A central view
of what this has cost the taxpayer is
vital,” she said. “One day we will want to
know... what worked and what didn’t.”
The committee also said it was con-
cerned that the Treasury did not plan to
distinguish the cost of Covid-
schemes from its “business-as-usual”
spending in future. Hillier said: “Gov-
ernment must be held accountable in
this way to all the future taxpayers who
will be paying for this response.
Crucially, this must ensure lessons are
learnt for when the next big crisis hits
— be it climate, health or financial.”
The committee noted that £
billion in loans had been provided or
guaranteed by the state during the
pandemic. Of the £82 billion providedby core business lending schemes,
£21 billion is expected to be written off.
On the £47.4 billion “bounce-back”
loan scheme, £18.4 billion is expected to
be lost — almost 40 pence for every £
underwritten by the taxpayer. The
scheme has been in the spotlight since
Lord Agnew of Oulton, the anti-fraud
minister, resigned last month, calling
efforts to prevent taxpayers’ money
being stolen “desperately inadequate”.
MPs noted that the Treasury was
“not able to put a figure to the expected
return on investment” from invest-
ment in anti-fraud measures, or an esti-
mate of the fraud and error across
schemes. The committee demanded
estimates by the end of the year.
A Treasury spokesman rejected “the
claims made in this report” and pointed
to an HM Revenue & Customs task-
force that has been told to recover £
billion from fraudulent or incorrect
payments. “Our Covid support
schemes were rolled out at a time of
national crisis, protecting millions of
jobs and businesses,” he said.News
kits before users have to pay
Britons ‘must be
told where support
money has gone’
James Hurleymore personal, sustainable experience in person. The removal of coronavirus rules may help to increase high street footfallJOSHUA BRATTHow Britain compares
Figures as of 6pm yesterday. Source: Our World in Data
(latest figures available) and gov.uk. Note: Selected countries.Daily
(Feb 21)
First dose
7,Boosters
(Feb 21)
29,Second
48.9mSecond
16,Total
38.1mFirst dose
52.6mPeople
vaccinated
in UKUAE 99% (24m)Portugal 94.8% (22.7m)Spain 87.8% (92.2m)Australia 85.3% (53.4m)Canada 85.4% (80.4m)Italy 83.8% (133.3m)
France 80% (140.3m)Sweden 76.8% (20.3m)UK 77.4% (139.5m)Percentage of population who have
received at least one vaccine dose
(total doses administered in brackets)Malta 90.9% (1.2m)hong kong
The whole 7.5 million population
will have three mandatory tests
next month, Carrie Lam has said,
as Hong Kong fights an outbreak
driven by the Omicron variant.
The chief executive said capacity
would be increased to one million
per day, and that testing would be
scheduled by birth year. Masks and
home-testing kits will be available
in the meantime, and an
announcement is expected soon on
shortening the interval between
second and third doses of vaccines.iran
Hundreds of thousands of doses of
the AstraZeneca vaccine have been
returned to Poland because they
were made in the United States,
even as the population suffers a
sixth wave. In 2020 Iran’s supreme
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
forbade vaccines made in Britain or
the US. Mohammad Hashemi, a
health ministry official, told Iranian
state television this week that
Poland had donated about a million
doses but 820,000 “were from the
United States” and would be
returned. Iran says that 90 per cent
of its people have had two doses of
vaccines including AstraZeneca
and drugs from China, Russia and
India, as well as one of its own.
More than 135,000 Iranians have
died of the virus, the highest death
toll in the Middle East.new zealand
One protester drove a car towards a
police line and others sprayed
officers with an unidentifiedstinging substance as the cordon
around a camp outside parliament
was tightened. Some of the
protesters, who oppose vaccination
mandates, were reported to have
thrown faeces at police. Video
posted online showed a car being
driven towards police who were
working to move concrete barriers
used to allow protesters out but not
in. The officers narrowly avoided
being hit before the car stopped and
the driver was pulled out. Jacinda
Ardern, the prime minister, said the
protesters had taken things too far
and should go home.uganda
Uganda will fine people more than
£800 for refusing to be vaccinated
and those who do not pay could be
jailed, parliament said yesterday.
Although the country started its
programme nearly a year ago, only
16 million out of its 45 million
population have been vaccinated.
Uganda has recorded 163,
infections and 3,500 deaths.Hong Kong
brings in
mandatory
virus testing
Global cases
425,940,Global deaths
5,890,Countries reporting most deathsMost new casesUS
Brazil
India
Russia
Mexico
Peru
UK1 2 3 4 5 6 71 2 3 4 5 6 9World update
149,
137,
99,
85,
51,
49,935,
644,
512,
339,
315,
209,
160,
Data supplied by Johns Hopkins University. US data fluctuates because of irregular reporting by different states. Figures as of 6pm
yesterday. Sources: UK government, Our World in Data, selected countries41,Russia
Germany
South Korea
Turkey
Japan
US
UKDeaths per million population
Rank Now Jan 31, 2021
6,
5,
4,
4,
4,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
3,
2,
2,
2,
2,Peru
Bulgaria
Bosnia & Herz.
Hungary
N. Macedonia
Georgia
Croatia
Czech Rep
Slovakia
Romania
Brazil
Poland
US
Italy
UK1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910
12
14
15
25
281,
1,
1,
1,
1,
797
1,
1,
836
949
1,
982
1,
1,
1,(16)
(13)
(7)
(14)
(10)
(40)
(17)
(5)
(37)
(31)
(24)
(29)
(11)
(6)
(4)