‘There was exceptional teamwork and rigour’: Head of the government finance function Cat Little reflects on her first Spending Review in 2020 2020 was a year unlike any other, with the coronavirus pandemic upending the work of government and changing how we live our daily lives. Senior figures from across the civil service tell us how the unprecedented 12 months affected them, and look ahead to 2021 Treasury director general, Public Spending, and head of the Government Finance Function Cat Little What are you proudest of government achieving in 2020? It has to be running my first Spending Review in HM Treasury – lots of lessons learnt – but overall I am really proud of the way in which teams across government worked with finance and HM Treasury in an open, collaborative way to get resources to where they are needed most. The Spending Review has demonstrated the exceptional teamwork and rigour of our finance teams who have been a real driving force in this process at every stage. I’m really very grateful to the team who showed great resilience and did such a fantastic job to deliver so much in such a short time. The quality of analysis and the multi-functional approach to delivering settlements has been a personal highlight.