Budget Responsibility and National Audit Bill [HL]

My Lords, although the noble Lord, Lord Peston, says that this is not necessarily the opportunity to try to clarify what is intended, I think that it is worth spending a moment or two to try to tease out what is going on here, although from what both noble Lords said, it is probably now clear what is going on. As I said at Second Reading, when I was first shown a draft of the Bill, it categorised the two groups as professional and non-professional. That was changed to expert and non-expert, but we are talking about, on the one hand, a group that is expert in the sense of having all the competencies to carry out the role of the OBR—so they are both expert and executive—and, on the other, another group of people who are described in the Bill as non-expert, but we are rightly talking about them as what they are in substance, non-executive. They might be expert or they might not, but the critical thing is that they bring to bear a degree of support and challenge that comes from a different perspective. If they happen to have some relevant expertise, fine, but that is not the point. The so-called non-experts are non-executives, but are full members of the OBR, which means that they can help to carry out any of the OBR's functions beyond those reserved for the BRC. As I see it, their role will be principally one of support and constructive challenge to the executive members, just in the way that non-exec directors would normally exercise those functions. They may form part of some committee structure, if the OBR so decides—audit is a particular role often assigned to independent non-executives—and they will carry out an important role in safeguarding the independence of the OBR. I have no difficulty with the principle behind Amendment 15, spoken to by the noble Lord, Lord Eatwell. It is just a question of the best way to achieve that. For a start, we have a statement from the Treasury Select Committee in its recent report on the OBR. It states: "““We will take evidence””—" from the OBR— "““regularly as part of the budget process. We will intervene if we believe the OBR's independence is threatened. We expect the members of the Budget Responsibility Committee or the non-executive directors to report any concerns they have to us. Only if it is independent will the OBR be successful””." We completely agree with that and would expect both the executive and the non-executive members, whether collectively or separately, to report any concerns on independence. That is clearly implied by the whole nature of the construct. The non-exec non-experts must be people of independent mind and character. The question is whether this needs to be written in further. My slight problem with requirements to report on things like independence on a regular basis is the risk of becoming formulaic. We want the OBR and the non-experts to report whenever they see any question of a lack of independence arising, and I hope that that will never occur, but my hesitation is that if you get people to report regularly it becomes another box that they tick and another standard sentence that they write. It may actually be more difficult for them to do what in substance there is nothing stopping them doing—there is every encouragement from the Government and from the Treasury Select Committee already—which is to raise any independence concerns in the appropriate way, which may not be in any particular form with any regularity. I have noted the points that have been raised, but at the moment I am not convinced that writing more into the Bill will necessarily do anything but lock us in to one particular formula. However, I will reflect further on the points that have been put. For the moment, though, I hope that I have answered the questions that have been raised and that that is sufficient for the moment for the noble Lord to withdraw the amendment.