Budget Responsibility and National Audit Bill [HL]

The Ministers might care to look over their shoulders; they are being handed advice. There are two points here that the Minister is getting wrong. First, on the business of being incentivised, of course the Treasury is incentivised to fund the OBR to do the things that the Treasury wants it to do; it is not incentivised to fund the OBR to do things that it does not want it to do. That, I am afraid, dismisses the incentivisation argument. It just does not make sense. The second point concerns the funding in the current spending round and the comments by Mr Tyrie about that funding, which I welcome, but which do not address the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Burns, about the future. That is what the amendment is about; it is not about what is happening now. As far as concerns the Treasury Committee, the launch funding seems to be adequate—maybe even generous—but the question is whether we are to provide a mechanism in the Bill that will prevent future Administrations using the budget as a constraint on the OBR. It is the most effective constraint of all because no one really notices it. If we are going to secure the independence of the OBR in the Bill, we should take the position supported by the noble Lord, Lord Burns, and clearly by Mr Chote, who said, ““I will be off to the committee””. Let us ensure that the committee has full information and powers to recognise the chairman of the OBR at an appropriate time, and to defend him. We are not talking about subvention or incentivisation. The incentivisation argument is false—it is the other way round—because, if the Treasury is incentivised, it is of course incentivised to stop the OBR doing things that it does not want it to do. Let us think about the future of this organisation and ensure that it has the independence that we seek. I will return to the issue on Report, because it is important. I am most encouraged by the support of a former Permanent Secretary, who has identified this as an important issue.