##used by those who have access to it, to the detriment of bank customers. moreover such misuse would severely damage the trust between banks and their customers, discouraging customers from using the banking system. consequently, the credit reference bureau must be governed by an enabling legal framework which guarantees the confidentiality and accuracy of the information passed to it and ensures that customers give their consent to any information about them being given to the crb. the legal framework in uganda for the credit reference bureau is the mdi act of 2003 and the financial institutions act of 2004. the latter mandates the bank of uganda to establish a credit reference bureau. the bank of uganda has issued regulations and guidelines to govern the operations of the crb. these regulations allow information relating to the performance of a borrower to be submitted to the credit reference bureau. the regulations stipulate that the written consent of the borrower must always be obtained in order to submit credit information to the crb. moreover, the onus of obtaining and keeping a record of the borrower ’ s consent rests with the lender, which must be able to demonstrate that it had obtained this consent in the event of any dispute. the bank of uganda has issued guidelines to the financial institutions that participate in the crb to protect the rights of borrowers and to ensure that data are not misused. financial institutions are required to put in place internal control procedures to ensure that access to the crb is restricted. they must use this information only in connection with their lending operations and with the borrower ’ s consent. guidelines have also been issued to enable the borrower to obtain access to his or her credit report held by the crb, in order to verify whether the data are accurate. the regulatory framework for the crb is not yet complete. within the next year or so we intend to establish a neutral ombudsman who can resolve disputes between customers and the crb on the veracity of the credit information held by the crb. currently there is no law in uganda that ensures the protection of personal data. in future, it would be desirable for uganda to enact a law on credit data protection which would replace the existing crb guidelines. data protection legislation could also allow non financial institutions, such as utility companies, to participate in the crb. in conclusion, i would like to stress that a good regulatory framework that conforms to international best practice, is essential for the efficient operation of the crb and to ensure

two to three days a week spent in the workplace to become the “ new normal ” for office workers. what is the evidence so far for the impact of covid on productivity and investment? here we can turn to the information that comes from the regular surveys of the bank ’ s decision maker panel ( dmp ) ( bloom et al., 2020 ). labour productivity in the uk tends to be pro - cyclical. this does not appear to be the case in the covid shock. so far during the pandemic labour productivity per hour appears to have risen, but with a tendency to reduce over time ( chart 2 ). there is, however, a lot more going on under the surface. there the february 2021 decision maker panel survey asked businesses for the first time about what proportion of their employees ’ time was spent working remotely, both pre - and during covid, as well as their long - term expectations. whilst remote working only accounted for around 8 % of total hours worked in 2019, this increased sharply during the pandemic, reaching 43 % in 2021 q1. moreover, firms expected remote working to persist into 2022 and beyond, with around 20 % of hours expected to be worked from home. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches and @ boe _ pressoffice has been a negative impact on productivity resulting from measures taken to contain covid. firms in the dmp estimated that covid has increased average unit costs by around 7 % in the second and third quarters of last year. they expected this impact to reduce to 5 % by the second quarter of this year, with a more persistent negative impact of 2 %. all of this reflects new costs – for ppe, screens etc., and the impact on costs from social distancing reducing capacity. however, this negative effect from higher unit costs was offset for dmp members by what is often called a batting average effect – namely that the impact of covid has shifted the composition of activity towards higher productivity firms. but this means that covid has seen lower total output and higher average labour productivity. this is consistent with the greater than normal supply side impact of the covid shock. but this is not creative destruction in a schumpeterian sense ; in other words that raises output through competition and innovation. rather, this is a form of destruction that lowers total output and welfare. i should also note that evidence on the impact on