Covid-19 Cost Tracker

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 (https://www.nao.org.uk/covid-19/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.

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