Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department had made of the cost per day of covid-19 lockdowns to the economy.
The pandemic and associated non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) created significant economic disruption and drove the largest recession on record, with the UK economy contracting by 9.4% in 2020.
The government has outlined the impact of restrictions and lockdowns on the economy in the following publications: Analysis of the health, economic and social effects of Covid-19 and the approach to tiering (30 November 2020), Budget 2021 (3 March 2021) and Living with Covid (21 February 2022). These documents can be found below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-health-economic-and-social-effects-of-covid-19-and-the-tiered-approach
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2021-documents
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-living-with-covid-19
Any attempt to estimate the specific economic impacts of precise changes to individual restrictions for a defined period of time would be subject to very wide uncertainty. HM Treasury, as part of its normal activities, carefully monitors the UK economy, and any risks to it, and remains ready to respond to challenges.