Verifying the data

We have cleared the data with relevant government departments.

To allow us to publish financial data in a timely way, we have not carried out an audit of the data. We are publishing data as provided to us by departments.

Publishing these data does not prejudice our future audit work or opinions. We are not drawing any value-for-money conclusions about these data.

Completeness

Not all departments were able to provide us with all the information we requested. In some cases where data were missing, we rolled forward cost and spend estimates from the September 2021 version of our COVID-19 cost tracker. For some measures where there has been spend, these data may not yet be available. In addition, spend against some announced measures is yet to start.

Measures include activities enacted under the Coronavirus Act 2020 to make sure the government can continue to function during the pandemic, for which there are limited or unclear cost implications, for example releasing local authorities from the requirement to fully assess people who have care needs.

Data precision

Please keep in mind the following caveats when working with these data:

• Measures is not a synonym for policies, nor is it a strictly defined classification and therefore we advise against comparisons and analyses that assume measures have been similarly defined throughout the data.
• Data for different measures provided to us by departments are rounded with different levels of precision. We round all data to the nearest £10,000 in our dataset. For all figures and charts in this app, values are rounded to the nearest million.
• For some groups of measures, we were provided with a combined estimated cost only, rather than estimates for individual measures. In these cases, we have published the combined cost for each group of measures.
• For some measures, central cost estimates are unknown, and we have stated the upper or lower limits of costs as estimated by departments at the time.

We therefore advise caution when summing the data.

Certainty

Costs and spend depend on a range of uncertain factors, including the impact of the pandemic on the wider economy and the level of take-up for each scheme.

Gross costs

The cost tracker aims to show the estimated gross costs of policy interventions, not the estimated additional cost to the government (that is, how much additional funding departments and devolved administrations will eventually need, over and above their existing levels of funding). Where there are exceptions to this, these are explained in the explanation column of the relevant measure. In some cases, interventions will involve reprioritising existing funding and resources.

Comparisons with government publications

It is not possible, in all cases, to reconcile our data with government cost estimates published by HM Treasury or the Office for Budget Responsibility. In particular, the total cost to government of the COVID-19 response in our cost tracker will differ from the amount government reported spending on COVID-19 support in other publications for three main reasons:

• Our cost tracker includes some measures funded through departments’ own resources.
• Our cost tracker excludes funds set aside for the COVID-19 response in the COVID-19 reserve.
• Timing differences of producing the cost estimates for each publication.

Technicalities

Technicalities such as Barnett formula adjustments have been explained where they are known to be included in costs, but may not be identified in all cases.

The estimated costs of government-backed loans and finance schemes represent estimates of write-off costs (for example, if businesses default on their loans), which have a consequent cost to the government.

The graph and table below show: the original estimated cost, the current estimated cost or the current spend (as selected in the dropdown) by lead department or category of support.

Use the dropdown menu to the left to select which estimated cost or spend you want to look at:

• Original estimate shows how much measures were expected to cost at the point of announcement.
• Current estimate shows how much measures are expected to cost as at the June 2022 update.
• Current spend shows how much the government has spent as at the June 2022 update.

You can also choose to display the estimated cost or spend by lead department or category of support by clicking on the appropriate tab at the top left of the graph.

Hovering your mouse over the bars in the graph will show the selected estimated cost or spend. It will also show you how many measures are included and for how many of these data exist.

To display estimated costs or spend for individual departments or categories of response, drag the mouse over the individual bar in the graph. This will filter the data in the table below the graph. To unfilter the table, double-click anywhere on the graph.

You can download any of the tables by clicking on the download buttons below (Note: to download selected data you will need to select data in the table).

Download the summary table of estimates Download the selected data Download the summary table of estimates Download the selected data

In some places, estimated cost columns show limits, ranges or a combined estimate across several measures. To produce a summary chart, we have made the following approximations and substitutions:

• Where a maximum or minimum amount is given, we have used that amount. For example, for “Up to 3m” we have used £3 million.
• For amounts expressed as ranges, we have taken the mid-point. For example, for “£10m to £20m” we have used £15 million.
• Where we have a total amount which covers several measures, we have apportioned the amount equally between the measures. Please note that this will not represent the true apportionment and has been done purely for the purpose of creating the bar chart.

The number of measures included in the COVID-19 cost tracker has increased over time. It is therefore not possible to compare the totals for the original and current estimated lifetime cost as these are not calculated over the same number of measures.

The category of support for each measure follows the definition used in our May 2020 report Overview of the UK government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The definitions for each category are as follows:

• Support for businesses affected by the pandemic, including support for retaining jobs, loans and grants.
• Support for health and social care responses covering service delivery, equipment, testing, services and vaccine development.
• Support for individuals affected by the pandemic, including benefits and sick pay, direct support to individuals or households and deferring tax payments.
• Other public services and emergency responses across all public services, both local and national.
• Other support including international aid and providing the public with information.
• Operational expenditure including IT costs related to working from home and increases in staff numbers.

The chart below shows the timeline of announcements of measures, the estimated lifetime costs of measures at the point of announcement and the current estimated lifetime costs of measures.

Using the dropdowns to the left you can display the costs by the following:

• A daily or weekly view of announcement dates.
• The estimated costs of measures at announcement dates (original estimate) or the estimated costs as at the June 2022 update (current estimate).

Clicking the checkbox will add a cumulative sum line to the graph to show how the total value of estimated costs has evolved over time.

The graph only plots those measures for which the date of announcement is known. It does not therefore include all measures and may not sum to the totals presented elsewhere in the COVID-19 cost tracker.

The data include measures that the government announced since February 2020 and on or before 31 March 2022, as part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including those measures for which departments have not estimated a cost.

Where we were provided with the information, we have included the latest estimate of how much each measure is expected to cost and how much has been spent so far. In some cases where the data were missing, we rolled forward cost and spend estimates from the September 2021 version of our COVID-19 cost tracker.

Since the May 2021 version of the cost tracker, we have included the additional costs that departments incurred as a result of operating under COVID-19-related restrictions or while delivering COVID-19 policy measures as well as the costs of government’s COVID-19 policy interventions. These include the following:

• Increases in staff numbers, for example new COVID-19 teams, redeploying existing staff to the COVID-19 response or hiring additional call centre staff.
• Overtime claims or changes to shift working.
• Increases in staff expenses, such as working-from-home allowances.
• IT and home-office furniture costs to support staff working from home, or new IT implementation for COVID-19 measures.

Where possible, we have presented these costs as a single item for a department. As with data on policy interventions, not all departments were able to give us complete and detailed information on their operating costs. In some cases, operating expenditure may also be captured within wider departmental funding packages. Therefore, the data on operational expenditure are not directly comparable across departments.

There is no minimum value threshold for a measure to be included.

For more information on how we identified measures, and collected data and verified it, see the Methodology .

Estimated cost data

These data come from government and are based on estimates from 21 government departments, the Bank of England, and the Office for Budget Responsibility. We have not engaged directly with other public bodies.

Estimated costs include the UK government’s allocation of funding to the following:

• Government departments and their associated organisations.
• Local authorities in England.
• The devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

They do not include further spending decisions taken by local authorities and the devolved administrations.

All estimated costs are government data unless stated otherwise.

Estimated spend data

These data come from government and represent the amount we know government has spent on COVID-19 response measures so far, where measures have already been implemented and data are available.

They reflect the government’s and the Bank of England’s spend (outturn), informed by their management information.

For the purposes of this cost-tracker, expenditure means that funds have left the department responsible and accountable for them (the lead department).

The funds may have gone to an individual, a private sector organisation or another public sector organisation.

Identifying measures

We primarily identified measures from government announcements related to COVID-19. These included announcements made as part of the Budget in March 2020, the Summer Economic Update in July 2020, the November 2020 Spending Review and the Budget in March 2021, the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, and the Spring Statement 2022. We became aware of further measures through work as part of our normal statutory function as the external auditor of government spending, and other measures were provided to us by departments. Measures that were announced in the early part of 2020 were included in our May 2020 report Overview of the UK government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We did not apply a minimum value threshold. All relevant measures are included, whatever their estimated cost. We also included measures for which the government has not provided a cost estimate.

We aimed to ensure that the list of measures is as complete as possible. However, not all expenditure will have been identified (see the Limitations section for more details).

We may make presentational changes to the measures, for example, where more granular data have become available. This means that measures may not be directly comparable to previous versions of our cost tracker. It should be noted that measures is not a synonym for policies, nor is it a strictly defined classification, and therefore we advise against comparisons and analyses that assume measures have been similarly defined throughout the data.

Collecting and verifying data

For each relevant measure we collated information relating to its estimated cost and spend where this was publicly available or held by us as part of our normal statutory function as the external auditor of government spending.

We then asked departments to provide any missing data and to confirm the accuracy of all data we held that related to them.