7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 7.2 As requested by the Committee, the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury wrote to the committee on 20 January 2021 outlining how HM Treasury will assess value for money (VFM) for the extended schemes. HM Treasury considered the VFM of the schemes and subsequent changes at key stages of the policy making process. Ensuring VFM, protecting employment and supporting businesses were central to the decision-making for the CJRS and SEISS extensions. Extending the CJRS was a critical response to the economic conditions, and the Office of Budget Responsibility have estimated that this extension will support up to 6 million jobs in November 2020 declining thereafter. The OBR have also estimated that unemployment would have been higher in the second quarter of 2021 in the absence of the CJRS and other measures. 7.3 The revised cost of the CJRS and SEISS will be set out at the next Budget in March 2021. Given the economic and fiscal significance of the CJRS, HM Treasury and HMRC are undertaking an evaluation of the schemes. 7.4 In December 2020, the departments published the Evaluation Plan for the CJRS, which sets out their approach to evaluating the CJRS. 7.5 The CJRS evaluation will draw on the Magenta Book and Green Book. The departments also plan to evaluate the SEISS, although self-assessment data will not be available until at least 2022.