Budget Responsibility and National Audit Bill [HL]

My Lords, the amendment, which has a whole clause to itself, is not difficult to understand. The Bill as drafted states: "““The Office must aim to carry out its functions efficiently and cost-effectively””." The amendment seeks to delete the words ““aim to”” so that it reads, ““The Office must carry out its functions efficiently and cost-effectively””. There would be a loophole if the office could simply say that it was aiming to do this when it may not achieve that objective. More sensibly it should be mandated to operate efficiently and cost-effectively, otherwise it may overspend its budget by an enormous amount and say, ““Do not worry, these are unforeseen circumstances. We aim to do it””. I beg to move.