Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the policies of the Wellbeing Economy Governments partnership on the UK's strategy for economic recovery at (a) local, (b) national and (c) global level; and if he will make a statement.

This government has provided an unprecedented package with a cumulative cost of £352 billion to protect people’s jobs and livelihoods and to support businesses and public services across the UK since the start of the pandemic.

The government has consistently erred towards generosity in its support, reflecting the severity of the impact of the pandemic on peoples’ lives.

To continue to support people on low incomes during the Covid-19 crisis, at Budget the government announced a six-month extension to the temporary £20 per week uplift to the Universal Credit (UC) standard allowance. The government has also announced similar support for eligible Working Tax Credit (WTC) claimants; because of the way the WTC system operates, being provided through a one-off £500 payment in April.

The government's actions to protect lives and livelihoods have been aimed at mitigating the most damaging effects of the pandemic on peoples’ wellbeing, and the government has considered a wide range of data throughout.

This includes National accounts statistics like GDP, which remains one of our most important economic indicators. It is closely correlated with employment, incomes and tax receipts and is comparable across time periods, making it useful for the government and Bank of England when setting economic policy and managing the public finances.

GDP has its limitations and should not be seen as an all-encompassing measure of welfare – something it was never designed to be.

Sir Charles Bean’s 2016 Independent Review of Economic Statistics acknowledged some of these limitations, such as the challenge of capturing activities where no market transaction takes place and the fact that GDP estimates make no allowance for the depletion of natural resources that may be inherent in many forms of economic production.

The government fully supported the recommendations of the Bean review and, to date, has provided the ONS with an additional £25m to help improve UK economic statistics - including through an initiative called “Beyond GDP” that aims to address the limitations in GDP by developing broader measures of welfare and activity.

This includes developing a suite of personal well-being measures, better accounting for unpaid work and developing estimates for natural and human capital.