Official Statistics

Government grants statistics 2021 to 2022

Updated 12 April 2023

1. Purpose of this report

This report accompanies the release of the Government grants register 2021 to 2022. This report provides context to this grants data, an overview of grant spending and guidance notes on how the data has been compiled.

This release is classified as Official Statistics. The details of the ongoing improvements to these statistics are outlined in the statistics development plan accompanying this publication.

Government grants register 2021 to 2022 data release covers:

• General grants and formula grants (at both scheme and award level) across all government departments. Note HM Treasury is not included in this publication because they do not manage any formula or general grants.
• Grants funded during the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.
• Grants that are new for 2021 to 2022 and grants that were set up in previous years which have continued to be active in 2021 to 2022.
• Exchequer-funded grants (this excludes grants funded by devolved governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland); this includes overseas aid provided by the UK government as grants, but excludes grants made by the EU or the UK government contribution to the EU.
• Any central government departments or arm’s length bodies (ALBs) that manage exchequer funded grants.

This data does not include:

• Grants-in-aid – these are funds allocated from one part of government to another part of government, for example, central government funding for the running costs of non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs).
• Details of awards made by Local Authorities.
• Details of fraud and error. Data relating to fraud and error is reported centrally and published annually in the Cross-Government Fraud Landscape Annual Report.
• Details of awards relating to the Coronavirus Job Recovery Scheme (CJRS) - information regarding these awards is published by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

There are a number of notes and caveats that will help inform the interpretation of this data. A summary of these, as well as departmental statements, can be found at the end of this report. Full details can be found in the Quality and Methodology Information document, published alongside this report. Note that values presented in this report are rounded. Therefore totals may not equal the sum of their parts, and percentages may not add up to exactly 100%. The statistics in this report are based on unredacted data, so will not exactly match any statistics calculated directly from the accompanying government grants register.

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2. Introduction to government grants

Government grants are funds intended to be permanently transferred^{[footnote 1]} from a government organisation, to a grant recipient^{[footnote 2]}, in order to fulfil a policy or public interest need. Unlike contracts/procurements (e.g. for the purchase of goods or services), grants are provided with the focus on the outcomes and impacts of the activities being funded. Usually grants are awarded to finance (or reimburse expenditure on) the recipients’ activities in order to further the implementation of government policy or public interest, where it is neither appropriate nor possible for the government organisation to carry out those activities itself.

Grant spending accounts for around 16% of total UK government expenditure.^{[footnote 3]} Government grant funding plays an important role domestically, in areas such as education, research, civil society and innovation, and abroad through international aid projects.

Grants can be used for a number of purposes, including providing financial subsidies to deliver activities and outcomes, supporting government policy initiatives, and funding research, development and innovation. Examples of grant funding from 2021 to 2022 include awards to support government priorities including renewable energy both domestically and abroad, fund local authorities to deliver new housing infrastructure, and deliver public health functions.

During the financial year covered by this report, grant spending continued to play a significant role in the government’s ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples of this funding from 2021 to 2022 include the £8.3bn Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Extension and the £8.2bn CJRS from HMRC.

2.1 Allocation of government grants

There are two allocation methods by which grants are issued:

• Formula grants: are those calculated by way of a formula. This funding is provided, in recognition of specific criteria, by central government to organisations such as local authorities, schools and the police. Funding is determined by factors relevant to the purpose, such as population or number of pupils who receive free school meals. These grants account for 67% (£115.8 billion across 164 schemes) of government grant spending.

• General grants: allow the government to secure policy objectives which the market cannot, such as innovation and research, and they allow an effective funding route for the voluntary and charitable sectors, for example to address homelessness and regional inequalities. General grants account for 33% (£56.3 billion across 1,782 schemes) of government grant spending.

Source: Accompanying statistical tables – Table 1

2.2 Total grant spend by department and allocation method

The government spent £172 billion on grants in 2021 to 2022. This is a 33% decrease from £258 billion in 2020 to 2021. The DfE gave out the greatest amount of money as grants, accounting for £70.2 billion (41%) of the total value of government grants. This includes the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), the General Annual Grant (GAG), and the 16-19 Education Grant; these three schemes account for a combined total of £56.8 billion. Large grant giving departments also include the Department for Levelling Up Housing & Communities (DLUHC), HMRC, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), and the Home Office (HO) which together with DfE gave out £148.4 billion (86%) of the total value of government grants.

Source: Accompanying statistical tables – Table 1

3. How grant spending has changed over time - from financial years 2018 to 2019 up to 2021 to 2022

In the financial years prior to 2020 to 2021, grants spending was broadly static at £113 billion in 2018 to 2019, and £118 billion in 2019 to 2020. This spend was dominated by formula grant schemes, making up around 70% of spend in both years.

In 2020 to 2021 and 2021 to 2022, grant spending played a key role in the UK government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Grant spending in 2020 to 2021 was £258 billion, more than doubling compared to previous years, with general grant spending higher than formula grant spending for the first time.

Grant spending in 2021 to 2022 has decreased by 33% compared to 2020 to 2021, however it remains significantly higher than in earlier years. This is largely due to the continuation of grant spend to support the COVID-19 response with a value of £31.2 billion^{[footnote 4]}, as well as increased formula grant spending to support economic recovery. The breakdown of this spending has mostly returned to previous patterns, with formula grant spending making up 67% of total grant spending.

The majority of formula grant spending continues to be associated with the DfE on schemes such as the DSG and the GAG. Grant spending by HMRC has reduced by 79% compared to 2020 to 2021 but is still significantly higher than in earlier years. This is due to the continuation of the CJRS and the SEISS. Several other departments exhibit a similar trend to HMRC. Grant spending by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) increased by 129% compared to 2020 to 2021. This was driven by the £744.8 million Kickstart scheme. Details on grant spending over time for all departments can be found in Table 1 of the statistical tables accompanying this bulletin.

Source: Accompanying statistical tables – Table 1

4. Formula grants in financial year 2021 to 2022

Formula grants are those calculated by way of a formula. This funding is provided, in recognition of specific criteria, by central government to organisations such as local authorities, schools and the police. Funding is determined by factors relevant to the purpose, such as population or number of pupils who receive free school meals. These grants account for 67% (£115.8 billion across 164 schemes) of government grant spending. This is a 4% increase on the value in 2020 to 2021, when £110.9 billion was funded via formula schemes.

Source: Accompanying statistical tables – Table 1

The largest formula grant funder is the DfE who provided £65.5 billion in formula grant funding during 2021 to 2022. Outside of the DfE, the next largest formula grant schemes are the DLUHC’s £5.8 billion Expanded Retail Discount and the HO’s £4.8 billion Police Main Grant. See table 1 below for details on these schemes, and the government grants register, accompanying this bulletin, for details of all grant schemes.

Table 1: The 10 largest formula grants schemes

Department	Scheme Name	Purpose and objectives	Value
DfE	Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)	The main monthly revenue funding for schools, high needs, and early years education.	£28.0 billion
DfE	General Annual Grant (GAG)	The main monthly revenue funding for academies - allocations are nett of Pupil Number Adjustment (PNA), Risk Protection Agreement (RPA) etc.	£24.9 billion
DLUHC	Expanded Retail Discount	Compensates local authorities for Business Rates reliefs given.	£5.8 billion
HO	Police Main Grant	Statutory funding to all Police and Crime Commissioners as the Police Main Grant, awarded under statute each year.	£4.8 billion
DLUHC	Deficit On Collection	A scheme for the collection and redistribution of business rates to Local Authorities promoting and rewarding local economic growth.	£4.3 billion
DfE	16-19 Education	To fund 16-19 further education and support.	£4.0 billion
DHSC	Public Health Ring-fenced Grant 21/22	The purpose of the grant is to provide local authorities in England with the funding required to discharge the public health functions. Subject to specified exceptions, the grant must be used only for meeting eligible expenditure incurred or to be incurred by local authorities for the purposes of their public health functions as specified in Section 73B(2) of the National Health Service Act 2006 (The 2006 Act).	£3.3 billion
HO	DLUHC Funding	Part of the Police Grant Report set by the Home Secretary.	£3.2 billion
DLUHC	Support for Energy Bills: Council Tax Rebate Scheme	Helping to meet rising energy costs through council tax rebate scheme.	£3.1 billion
DfE	Pupil Premium	Funding to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and pastoral support for children of service families.	£2.5 billion

5. General grants in financial year 2021 to 2022

General grants allow the government to secure policy objectives which the market cannot, such as innovation and research, and they allow an effective funding route for the voluntary and charitable sectors, for example to address homelessness and regional inequalities.

General grants account for 33% (£56.3 billion) of the value of government grants spending and 92% (1,782) of the volume of grant schemes in 2021 to 2022. This is a 62% decrease on the value in 2020 to 2021, when £146.9 billion was funded via general grants.

Source: Accompanying statistical tables – Table 1

The largest general grant funder in 2021 to 2022 was HMRC which spent £16.6 billion on general grants. This includes the CJRS and the SEISS; these two schemes account for a combined total of £16.5 billion. Outside of HMRC, the next largest general grant schemes are the BEIS’s £5.6 billion Nuclear Liabilities Fund grant contribution 20-22 and the BEIS’s £3.4 billion Restart Grant. See table 2 below for details on these schemes, and the government grants register, accompanying this bulletin, for details of all grant schemes.

Table 2: The 10 largest general grants schemes

Department	Scheme Name	Purpose and objectives	Value
HMRC	Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) Extension	Grants paid to a self-employed individual or a member of a partnership where they are affected by the coronavirus pandemic and unable to work due to lockdown/restrictions.	£8.3 billion
HMRC	Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS)	Support employers who cannot maintain their workforce because their operations have been affected by COVID-19. Organisations could put employees on furlough and apply for a grant to cover a portion of the usual monthly wage costs.	£8.2 billion
BEIS	Nuclear Liabilities Fund grant contribution 20-22	BEIS contribution to the nuclear liabilities fund agreed with HM Treasury.	£5.6 billion
BEIS	Restart Grant	To help businesses in England recover from the pandemic.	£3.4 billion
DfT	Greater London Authority Transport Grant 21/22	This grant is provided by the government to Transport for London to deliver transport services and investment in the capital, including London Underground.	£1.8 billion
BEIS	Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) - Domestic and Non-domestic FY 2021/22	The RHI scheme provides financial incentive to increase the uptake of renewable (low carbon) heating technologies. The RHI objectives are to: 1) increase the amount of heat produced from renewable sources; 2) reduce carbon emissions from heating homes and business premises; and 3) help to grow supply chains which can support a national transition from fossil fuel to low-carbon heating technology.	£920 million
DfT	Transforming Cities Fund 21/22	The Transforming Cities Fund aims to improve productivity and spread prosperity through investment in public and sustainable transport in some of the largest English city regions.	£849 million
DfE	Adult Education Budget (AEB)	The Secretary of State’s powers for adult education functions have been devolved to nine Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) and the Greater London Authority (GLA). Both the MCAs and the GLA are the recipients of these grants. These AEB grants give them the funding to exercise those functions.	£757 million
DfE	Priority School Building Programme - Private Finance Local Authority & Voluntary Aided School Revenue Grant	Revenue funding for private sector organisations as part of Public Private Partnership to maintain the condition of selected repaired schools.	£752 million
DfE	Apprenticeships Participation 16-18	To fund the provision of apprenticeship training.	£748 million

5.1 General grant awards by allocation method in financial year 2021 to 2022

There are three means by which general grants are allocated to recipients:

• Competed - applications are invited and evaluated, with awards made based on the outcome of the application. In 2021 to 2022 these grants had a total value of £16.5 billion. Competed grant awards in 2021 to 2022 had an average (median) value of £27,000. As per the Grants Functional Standard, competition should be the default allocation method, wherever appropriate.

• Un-competed - grants are awarded to a single organisation or individual without a competition, for example where there is only a single organisation that has the capability of delivering the objectives. In 2021 to 2022 these grants had a total value of £18.1 billion. Un-competed grant awards in 2021 to 2022 had an average (median) value of £27,000.

• Criteria - disseminated based on specific qualifying criteria, for example grants to assist those affected by floods. In 2021 to 2022 these grants had a total value of £11.3 billion. Criteria grant awards in 2021 to 2022 had an average (median) value of £9,000.

Source: Accompanying statistical tables – Table 2

Note that these totals are calculated based on award level data, and average (median) values are calculated based only on awards to organisations. Therefore these totals do not add up to the other general grants totals in this report.

6. Grant schemes by COFOG in financial year 2021 to 2022

We can classify grants by their area of economic activity using the Classification of the functions of government (COFOG). COFOG defines the broad objectives of government activity. The UK government classifies £70.1 billion of its grants spending as Education (see COFOG definitions for details on what areas of spending this category includes). General public services (£37.1 billion) is the second largest classification.

Source: Accompanying statistical tables – Table 3

7. Data Notes

Full notes for each data field are included in the scheme and award level data accompanying this report. Below are the key notes that users should be aware of when interpreting this data:

• The location recorded on the register is not necessarily reflective of the ultimate beneficiary of grant funding. The address may represent the head office of the initial recipient, rather than where the money is actually spent.
• Some data has been redacted at both scheme and award level in the published data, where there is a requirement by law and data protection regulations; where data has been redacted at award level but not scheme level, this will result in a difference between scheme-level and award-level data values.
• The details of awards relating to the CJRS are excluded - information regarding these awards is published by HMRC.
• Grants-in-aid are excluded from this publication; grants-in-aid are funds allocated from one part of government to another part of government, for example, central government funding for the running costs of non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs).
• Financial figures can be reported on either a cash or accruals basis. We are working with departments to make this consistent for future publications.
• Some data is completely redacted for reasons of national security or commercial security. The statistics in this document and the accompanying statistical tables are calculated based on un-redacted data. This means that the statistics in this report won’t completely match the full published dataset.
• Some recipient information is redacted due to it containing personal information or for national security or commercial security reasons. These details are replaced with [Redacted] in the dataset.
• Average (median) award values only include awards going to organisations, excluding those going to individuals, and are rounded to the nearest thousand.
• Where central government provides grant funds to an organisation that then provides onwards grants to end recipients, only the grant to the initial organisation (e.g. the local authority) is included in this data.

8. Departmental statements about the data in this report

Cabinet Office

During the 2021-22 period, in addition to grants that would have been ordinarily issued by the Cabinet Office, of significant relevance, the Cabinet Office continued to support grant funding in relation to COP26 activities and the G7 summit. COP26, was the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference, held at the SEC Centre in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, from 31 October to 13 November 2021 with support provided in the handover to COP27 held in Egypt.

The UK hosted the G7 Summit as part of its 2021 G7 Presidency. The G7 Summit was held in Carbis Bay, Cornwall on 11-13 June 21 2021. In addition to this, following an announcement from the prime minister, a decision was made to provide additional grant funding to the office of veterans affairs to support veterans.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

The BEIS data contained within the Government Grants Information System (GGIS), and therefore within this publication, is an approximation of the grant schemes run by BEIS. The awards data covers grants to individual identifiable entities (companies, charities, universities) but excludes awards to persons and consortia. The data excludes non-grant award funding such as funding issued as contracts, loans and operating cost subsidies. Further details of these categories of spending are set out in the Department’s accounts and those of its partner organisations. The core BEIS grants data team is working with the Government Grants Management Function to improve data quality and completeness for the 2022 to 2023 publication. This is to strive for a better centralised representation of the grants delivered by BEIS, its partner organisations and ALBs. BEIS Covid support schemes allocated by local authorities are for eligible businesses in England. The Devolved Governments received funding for their own Covid support schemes which is not included in this report.

Full details on the take up and the costs of the Help to Grow: Digital scheme will be released in due course once the scheme has fully closed.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Please note that the total DCMS value reported in this submission is slightly above that reported in the Annual Report and Accounts as some grants report the budget value rather than the actual value and our data capture is not always capable of making this distinction.

Department for Education

With the exception of the Office for Students (OfS), the DfE’s GGIS 2021-22 return for both grant schemes and grant awards is on an expenditure basis. This is consistent with treatment in prior years. DfE’s grant award data consists of one line for each recipient of the grant.

The OfS’ grant schemes are reported on a budgeted basis, with awards being a mixture of budgeted and expenditure values.

Respectively, the scheme data and award data reported on GGIS represent 97% and 94% of the Department Group’s grant expenditure.

Having been prepared on a resource expenditure basis, the total expenditure includes accounting adjustments (such as accruals) that are not relevant to users of the GGIS, along with transactions that we have been unable to attribute to specific recipients, and where further investigation was not proportionate on a value for money basis. These adjustments make up the 3% (scheme level) and 6% (award level) of total expenditure.

When a grant has been awarded to an Academy, the Academy’s or its Academy Trust’s details may be present in the recipient organisation field. Where identified in the reporting process, the DfE’s return excludes funding to third party organisations through contracts.

Department for Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

During 2021-22 Defra has been focused on completing EU transition. We launched various marine and farming environment schemes including UK Seafood Fund, Future Farming Resilience Fund and Sustainable Farming Incentive to support this transition.

We lead on contributing to the Government’s 2050 net zero ambition and published the England Trees Action Plan and England Peatland Action Plan under the Nature for Climate Fund. Under this programme we launched a range of peatland restoration and tree planting schemes.

We launched the first set of programmes to receive funding from the £500 million Blue Planet Fund. This will increase marine protection, tackle plastic pollution and the decline of coral reefs, as well as supporting developing countries in nature-based solutions to tackle climate change and providing access to UK scientific expertise. We made record investment in flood and coastal defences, including providing grants to Local Authorities to help householders fund changes that will help them become more resilient to any future flooding. We continue to provide grant funding to Local Authorities to improve air quality, this year including grants focused on encouraging fleet turnover to newer, less polluting vehicles. For further details see Defra Annual Report and Accounts 2021-22.

Forests, woods and trees are at the heart of the Government’s agenda for tackling carbon and climate change, to improve the environment and to build the green economy. The target to treble tree planting rates in England is not without challenges and the associated risks are captured in the Forestry Commission Annual Report.

Department for Health and Social Care

The DHSC data covers core DHSC grants and those administered by its Arm’s Length Bodies. On 1st October 2021, Public Health England (PHE) was reconfigured to form the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and part of the organisation was retained as a new directorate (OHID) within DHSC. The attribution of grants may therefore refer to DHSC, PHE or UKHSA, but the individual grants may have come under the remit of more than one of these organisations during the financial year.

DHSC data contained within the GGIS, and therefore within this publication, covers grants to entities such as companies, charities, universities and consortia but excludes awards to individuals. Funding issued as contracts for goods and services and as loans is also excluded, and we are working with Cabinet Office and Commercial Directorate to exclude partnership funding through Memoranda of Understanding for financial year 2022-23, which are not covered by the Government Grant Standard.

Please note that some of the data provided is budgeted rather than actual values and overall figures on the split between budgeted and actual values across government are included in the Quality and Methodology Information document which accompanies the publication.

Where the budget/ actual figures for this year are listed as £0, this represents a no-cost extension, granted to allow grant recipients additional time to complete projects funded in the previous financial year

The Disabled Facilities Grants scheme is funded by DHSC and administered by DLUHC on its behalf.

Every effort has been made to ensure that this data is accurate and only grant awards are included. However there may be a small number of awards listed that were ultimately funded through other funding mechanisms or not funded at all.

Department for International Trade

DIT’s Annual Report and Accounts 2021-2022 includes grants funded by the EU Regional Development Fund. The data published in the government grants register includes only DIT grants funded by the UK Exchequer.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

The DLUHC data is on a cash payment basis for schemes and awards, which is consistent with prior years’ treatment, and therefore excludes accounting adjustments such as Accruals.

Grants to local authorities include the Revenue Support Grant which finances revenue expenditure and capital grants which finance non-current assets. These are agreed through the local government finance settlement. In addition, specific grants are distributed outside the settlement.

Grant payments may need to be recovered from recipients for a variety of reasons depending on the grant conditions. Where recoveries are made income is recognised at the point that the invoice, or other notice requiring repayment, has been issued. The negative values relate to grant recoveries which net off with the overall scheme at programme level. The Authority Acts for Awards are automatically associated to the relevant Scheme Authority Act on GGIS and may not be individually verified. A Scheme may have more than one relevant Authority Act.

DLUHC continued to play a critical role in the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic through the year, with interventions across housing, local government and communities, to reduce transmission, protect the vulnerable and to help the country recover. To support local authorities with their ongoing COVID-19 Response role, the Government allocated over £12 billion directly to councils in 2020-21 and 2021-22. Further information on Covid expenditure can be found in the department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2021/22.

New UK-wide growth funds begun delivery this year, including the Levelling Up Fund and UK Community Renewal Fund, funding projects across the UK. In October 2021 the department uncovered a control failing which allowed the GLA to accumulate £1.7 billion of funding from the 2016-23 Affordable Homes Programme that they had not spent on delivery since programme payments began in 2015-16. The surplus funding had been correctly set aside for investment in affordable housing. DLUHC officials took immediate action to stop further payments to the GLA and to recover payments made in 2021-22. Therefore after recoveries, the 2016-2023 Affordable Housing Programme - London scheme had zero net funding in 2021 to 2022 and so doesn’t appear in this publication. Further information on the Affordable Homes Programme can be found in the department’s Annual Report and Accounts 2021/22. Business rates retention (top ups) are excluded from this publication as these are redistributed business rate grant payments funded through the collection of tariff amounts under the rate retention system and are not funded via the UK Exchequer.

The Disabled Facilities Grant is funded by DHSC and is therefore included in their return this year.

Department for Transport

The award amounts for ‘Covid 19 Bus Service Support Grant commercial’ have been redacted and appear as £0 in this publication. Specific amounts of grants paid to each company could risk distorting competition in the sector.

Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

The data contained within this Government Grants Register shows a single year snapshot of FCDO grant spend as it is held on the GGIS at the point of publication.

The most accurate and up to date information on FCDO programmes can be found under FCDO transparency releases on gov.uk. All Overseas Development Assistance (ODA), including FCDO grant funding, is published to the International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) standard on Development Tracker.

HM Revenue & Customs

Throughout 2021-22, HMRC’s grants were primarily made up of COVID-19 scheme payments - specifically, the SEISS and the CJRS. The figures represent actual expenditure, as published in our 2021-22 Annual Report and Accounts. The 2021-22 values are substantially lower than 2020-21 totals due to COVID schemes coming to a close during the financial year.

Home Office

The HO data contained within the GGIS, and therefore within this publication, is reflective of the grant schemes run by HO.

The awards data covers grants to individual identifiable entities (companies, charities, universities) and other bodies. The data excludes non-grant award funding such as funding issued as contracts.

The figures represent either budgeted or actual expenditure, depending on the information available up to the time of completion and additional expenditure may have occurred since these details were presented and accounts for variances between the scheme value and the supporting awards. Any schemes with £0 value had a break in continuity for the funding year being published.

The core HO grants team is working with the Government Grants Management Function to improve data quality and completeness.

Some scheme details are not included in the publication report due to their sensitive nature or for reasons of national security.

Ministry of Defence

There are some differences between the financial year value of some schemes and the total financial year value of the associated awards. These variations exist due to several factors; COVID-19 restrictions prevented some commemorative events taking place; challenges around recruitment; awards being considered and approved by award panels in the final quarter of the Financial Year and a headcount variation/basis to which these awards are made.

Ministry of Justice

Addresses of Rape Support Funding Grant recipients and Women’s Community Sector Grant recipients have been redacted as they contain sensitive information.

1. unless unused or misspent ↩

2. a third party that is separate from the government organisation ↩

3. Calculated based on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Public finances databank figure for total managed expenditure at the time of publication. ↩

4. Total COVID-19 spending is estimated by summing the total value of schemes that have been identified by departments as being predominantly part of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Note there may be further schemes (not predominantly part of the COVID-19 response) that contained subsets of awards relating to COVID-19. Equally there may be schemes included in this estimate that would have still paid out in the absence of the pandemic, or contain some spending that is not related to COVID-19. ↩