Photo: Government Finance Function In the spotlight: Treasury’s public spending chief Cat Little on how Covid changed the finance ministry – and ministerial red boxes 23 Feb 2021 After an extraordinary year, Cat Little reflects on how the Treasury and government finance function met the pressures of a pandemic with innovation Cat Little was not planning to run a Spending Review from her house. The Treasury’s director general of public spending found out she was going to move from her previous role as chief finance officer at the Ministry of Defence in December 2019, with her start date at 1 Horse Guards Road set for the following March, after the Budget.