Closing summary
Rishi Sunak has told the Covid-19 inquiry that the government was initially advised by the “medical and scientific community” not to move “too early” on Covid decisions. He said the view at the time was that measures needed to be sustained for a “period” and that the timing had to be “right” to keep the public onside.
Sunak, speaking from an economic standpoint as the chancellor during the pandemic, said the government was successful in “preventing mass unemployment”, which he described as the “biggest fear” in the early stages of lockdown. He suggested that widespread job losses could have led to a breakdown in social order.
Reflecting on the turmoil of the early days of Covid, Sunak said he was at one point worried “about the UK’s ability to fund itself”, describing that experience as “acutely stressful”. Speaking about fluctuations in the gilt markets, he said the period “was intense and filled with anxiety, certainly for me”.
He said officials spent a “huge amount of time” examining whether they could change the conditions of the self-employed scheme to capture workers left out of it. The scheme, he said, “was imperfectly targeted because that’s all we could do”, adding there was “constant looking” at what might be tweaked as new information reached the Treasury.
Sunak said he initially believed there would be a temporary “economic shock”, lasting “several weeks to a few months”. Officials, he said, understood that the impacts would be “temporary”, and the focus was on ensuring the shock did not lead to long-term economic consequences. He also said he had been “particularly worried” about young people’s job prospects, including those targeted by the Kickstart scheme launched in September 2020.
Sunak added that there was not a “toolkit” to deal with the pandemic and noted he was surprised to be made chancellor. Having become chief secretary to the Treasury in July 2019, he said he did not have a “huge amount of time in that context” before his appointment in February. His “immediate job”, he said, was to prepare a budget in the “space of a few weeks”.
Youth unemployment is a huge problem for the current government, owing in part to the continued impact of Covid and the cost of living crisis.
Ministers have been especially concerned with the rising number of young people classed as Neets (not in employment, education or training), which experts suggest is on course to exceed one million for the first time since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Many young people are applying for jobs alongside hundreds of applicants, for low-paying entry-level positions that ask for years of experience.
Bosses are prioritising automation through AI to plug skills gaps and allow them to reduce headcount, instead of training up junior members of staff, a report by the British Standards Institution (BSI) found.
Along with a series of other measures, the government has launched an expansion of youth apprenticeships to 50,000 places over the next three years as it tries to grapple with the issue.
