2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 2.2 HM Treasury has continued to work closely with departments to develop robust methodologies for identifying and capturing the cost of COVID-19 in support of the latest publication of the cost tracker. The quality of the data has improved in the September 2021 update following this continued collaboration. 2.3 The government set out its spending plans and choices up to 2024-25 in the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 document. This included a comprehensive recovery plan. As part of the Spending Review 2021 process, departments provided HM Treasury with information on costings of interventions to support the response to, and recovery from, the COVID-19 pandemic, including an assessment of the strategic, economic, commercial, financial and management cases for investment through supporting business cases. This process prioritised building back better from COVID-19 by investing in public services, jobs and growth, and the transition to Net Zero. This included providing funding for services most affected by COVID-19 – such as the health and education systems – to continue to respond to the impacts of the virus.