We are concerned that HM Treasury is unable to explain how much the extended schemes are forecast to cost or what would constitute value for money. HM Treasury argues that it falls to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to produce forecast costs for the scheme extensions. However, HM Treasury is nonetheless responsible for providing assurance to Parliament of the value for money of schemes, of which costing is an important part. The OBR now forecasts that extensions to the schemes will cost the taxpayer a further £21 billion. It is also unacceptable that the Departments are unable to explain what constitutes value for money in these schemes. We accept that when the schemes were initially developed back in the spring the exceptional circumstances at that point made such analysis difficult. In the intervening period, however, we would have expected HM Treasury to have developed a more rigorous assessment of the costs and benefits of the schemes to ensure taxpayer money is spent wisely. Recommendation: HM Treasury should write to the Committee within a month to set out how it will assess value for money for the extended schemes. 8 Covid-19: Support for jobs 1 Implementing and evaluating the initial covid-19 employment support schemes