Mon, 24 Nov 2025

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 Furlough and business loans on the agenda for Covid Inquiry

The inquiry will look at how support schemes were designed and what was done to minimise fraud and waste.
£140bn was spent on business support schemes, with £70bn going towards furloughing 11.7 million jobs between March 2020 and September 2021. The scheme for self-employed individuals, loan schemes for businesses, and business rates relief will also be examined. Questions have been raised about the scale of the programme, safeguards against fraud and error, and whether it delayed people taking up new work roles. This part of the inquiry won't focus on how the pandemic affected the economy as a whole. Former Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to appear in a couple of weeks' time, stating that the government was "operating in a highly uncertain environment". Baroness Coffey and Will Quince are due to give evidence this week, along with Labour market expert Mike Brewer. The public hearings for this section will run from Monday until December 18.
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