Our programme of work

In light of the wide range and significance of the government’s actions to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, we intend to carry out a broad and varied programme of work.

We are looking at government preparedness for the pandemic, the spending on the direct health response and the wider emergency response. We are also looking at the measures aimed at protecting businesses and individuals from the economic impact.

We will prioritise our work on areas where we think there have been particular challenges and where we feel there is most to learn.

Recent publications

Overview of the UK government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic

This report provides a summary of the UK government’s response to COVID-19 to date.

Work in progress

Readying the NHS and social care in England for COVID-19

This will provide a factual update on progress with key government actions across health and social care, as set out in Sir Simon Stevens’s and Amanda Pritchard’s le

Previous relevant reports

A collection of our previous work which is relevant to the issues being faced in the pandemic response.

Preparing for emergencies

• Contingency preparations for exiting the EU with no deal (2019) looked at the work of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, which aims to increase UK government’s ability to respond to and recover from civil emergencies.
• Exiting the EU: supplying the health and social care sectors (2019) examined the government’s plans for maintaining medical supplies in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

Responding to economic shocks

• Asset protection scheme (2010) looked at a scheme the government introduced in 2009 to protect banks against exceptional losses during the financial crisis.
• The creation and sale of Northern Rock plc (2012) examined the nationalisation and eventual sale of Northern Rock, another significant government intervention in banking brought about by the financial crisis.
• Support to business during a recession (2010) looked at the design and set-up of several schemes to support businesses through the recession that stemmed from the financial crisis.

Sector overviews

• Evaluating the government balance sheet: borrowing (2017) includes an explanation of how government borrows money to fund public expenditure, and the costs and risks of doing so.
• NHS financial management and sustainability (2020) was our eighth report on the financial sustainability of the NHS.
• Adult social care at a glance (2018) looked at key trends, developments, and pressures in the social care system.
• Financial sustainability of Local Authorities (2018) reviewed the financial and service sustainability of local authorities.