Cost of COVID-19 pandemic to date £2billion but this will rise significantly: NIAO

However, this excludes the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and when this is known the costs will rise materially.

In a report published this morning on the Executive’s response to COVID-19 Mr. Donnelly explains that the £2 billion estimate is made up of two main elements.

These are the anticipated spending by government departments on 84 separate initiatives (£1.74 billion) and the estimated cost of other national schemes which apply to Northern Ireland (£465 million) – including increases in welfare payments.

The report notes that, with the north still progressing through the various stages of the pandemic, and with some activities yet to be costed, the actual cost will be much higher.

He said: “The challenge of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic is unlike any the Northern Ireland Executive has ever faced. The scale of its response is similarly unprecedented.

"The Executive was required to quickly introduce multiple measures supporting vulnerable individuals and businesses facing a major reduction in income. My report gives an overview of these measures, but no assessment of the value for money of individual measures has been made at this point.

“There will undoubtedly be important lessons to learn, and this report provides my office with the basis for a programme of work evaluating how public money has been spent during this period."

"For example, as an initial step, we intend to examine arrangements surrounding the supply of personal protective equipment in NI; the support provided to lessen the impact on vulnerable groups; and the wider impact of COVID-19 on public sector income."

The report outlines how approximately 70 per cent of total estimated costs identified in the report relate to activities across three departments: Department of Health (£568 million, representing 33 per cent of anticipated departmental spending); Department for the Economy (£408 million, representing 23 per cent of anticipated departmental spending); and Department of Finance (£252 million, representing 14 per cent of anticipated departmental spending).

Up until now the NI executive response to COVID-19 has been funded by £1.28 billion received from the United Kingdom Government or NI Executive and approximately £465 million either reallocated from within existing NI departmental budgets, or part of additional departmental bids submitted to the Executive.

By July 24, 2020, the UK Government had confirmed that it would provide £2.2 billion to Northern Ireland (due as a result of Barnett consequentials) to fund COVID-19 activities.

At June 8 2020, there had been three COVID-19 related Ministerial Directions. All related to the three Business Support Grant Schemes launched by the Department for the Economy.

In all three cases, the Department had concerns as to whether it could provide sufficient evidence of the likely value for money of the schemes or sufficient assurance on the risk of loss through error or fraud (given that the schemes were developed and implemented within tight timeframes).

There have also been a number of Ministerial Directions across the other UK jurisdictions in relation to COVID-19 response initiatives.