Budget Responsibility and National Audit Bill [HL]

My Lords, Clause 4 states: "““It is the duty of the Office to examine and report on the sustainability of the public finances””." The amendment proposes to insert at the end of that passage, "““on the basis of section 1(2)(a) and (b)””," which, as we have already discovered, state that the charter should set out, "““the Treasury’s objectives in relation to fiscal policy and policy for the management of the National Debt””," and the means by which the Treasury is going to achieve that. It is important to refer back to the earlier passage to be clear about how the OBR will carry out its duties. I still have considerable problems in understanding how it is going to look into these matters without also examining the Government’s economic policy—a matter that we spent a long time on in the previous Committee sitting. In the mean time, however, we have received a letter from the Minister commenting on that aspect. It is closely written and very condensed, and it deserves careful study. I presume that it is being placed in the Library so that it will be generally available.