The government will spend another £15bn on Covid despite the fact that the pandemic has been declared over.
Last week, in an update of the Treasury’s Covid Cost Tracker, officials revealed that the Government would spend another £14.9bn for “active” measures like recovery funding and associated costs with the Covid enquiry.
According to the Treasury, the additional expenditure will bring the cost of the pandemic to £373bn in the UK, which is slightly less than the £375bn predicted by the National Audit Office last year.
Conservative MPs are likely to be concerned by the revelation that the government will spend an additional £15bn on projects relating to the pandemic.
The Telegraph quoted Sir Jacob Rees Mogg, former business secretary: “If we continue to spend money on things that are no longer relevant, there won’t be any room for tax reductions.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO), in May, declared the end of the Covid global crisis but warned countries not to let their guard down.
The government has been criticized for giving large sums of money during crisis, which were then wasted.
The NAO reported earlier this year that almost £15bn in pandemic supplies included PPE, were wasted due to “astonishing” and “inacceptable” failures.
The NAO also pointed out poor financial controls, which resulted in auditors being unable to sign off on the accounts of the UK Health Security Agency(UKHSA), a part of the Department of Health.
A Government spokesperson said: “During pandemic, the Treasury acted rapidly to prevent catastrophic increases of unemployment.
Millions of people could have lost their jobs or their businesses if Covid and furlough had not been implemented.
“We do not apologize for helping the society recover from this pandemic, including the important work done by the Covid Inquiry in order to provide families with the answers they need.”
The Department for Transport, which reclassified emergency assistance for train companies in lockdowns, has also reduced the cost of rail-related measures by 3bn pound sterling.