UK's COVID-19 spend estimated at £372 billion

Britain has estimated its pandemic spending at over £370 billion, a number that is highly likely to increase.

FILE PHOTO: A sign is seen engraved on the Treasury building, ahead of Wednesday's budget being delivered by Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, in London, Britain, March 1, 2021. REUTERS/Toby Melville

LONDON (Bywire News) - On Thursday, Britain's top financial civil servant said that for the time being, an estimate of £372 billion for coronavirus-related spending was adequate, although likely to change.

According to a government spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, earlier this month it was estimated that between February 2020 and the end of March 2021, government departments spent around £372 billion on COVID-19 kindred measures.

"It's a good, reliable snapshot as of today, but we would certainly expect - and I'm sure the NAO would expect - that number to change as we see what happens," Tom Scholar, the finance ministry's most senior civil servant, told a panel of lawmakers. ($1 = 0.7082 pounds)

(Reporting by Andy Bruce and Klaudia Fior, Editing by Paul Sandle)