UK Covid response cost £372bn, says National Audit Office

Tackling the pandemic has so far cost the UK a staggering £372 billion, according to the National Audit Office.

The public spending watchdog said today the impact of Covid was unprecedented, but the government had lacked a detailed plan for handling the crisis, which it said had exposed existing fault lines in society.

And it warned that standards of transparency and accountability had to be maintained even in such an extreme situation.