Budget Responsibility and National Audit Bill [HL]

My Lords, again I intended this to be a very brief debate, but already it has taken 22 minutes. I am obliged to the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, for replying to my amendment. Sometimes I have the feeling that he is a frustrated ex-permanent secretary who, having taken control of Ministers, the Opposition and everybody else, now finds himself having to listen to arguments that he would have dismissed out of hand before. I hope that he will forgive me. I appreciate what he said, except when he claimed that there was no analogy between the MPC and the OBR. I deliberately never referred to the MPC. I more than recognise the difference between the MPC, which was given a job to do under the Bank of England Act, and the OBR. I recognise that the OBR is a forecasting body, but it looks as if it will be rather more, judging by the 150-page document before us. The Minister, who has formally replied to the debate in place of the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, said that once again—in Amendment 13, I think—we wanted to say something that was unnecessary because the OBR can do it anyway. Again, though, if it can do it, why not leave it in the Bill? However, we will come back to that on another occasion. Meanwhile, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 13 withdrawn. Amendments 14 and 15 not moved. Amendment 16 Moved by