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Review of scope and performance of Office for Budget Responsibility

Inquiry

After initial reluctance from the Budget Responsibility Committee's Chairman, Lord Burns, to provide it, Treasury Committee staff have now reviewed the e-mail exchange between the Treasury and the OBR in the 'pre-release access period' leading up to the publication of the OBR's December 2014 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

The correspondence shows that, during this period, a number of non-factual requests for changes to the OBR's Economic and Fiscal Outlook were made by Treasury officials. Some were taken on board by the OBR. While these changes made no material difference to the content of the publication, they raise concerns about the terms of engagement between the OBR and Government officials. These should now be clarified.

Reports, special reports and government responses

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7th Report - Reviewing the Office for Budget Responsibility
Inquiry Review of scope and performance of Office for Budget Responsibility
HC 514
Report
Response to this report
Government response to the conclusions and recommendations of the Treasury Select Committee report on reviewing the Office for Budget Responsibility
Government Response

Oral evidence transcripts

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14 October 2015
Inquiry Review of scope and performance of Office for Budget Responsibility
Witnesses Sir Dave Ramsden, Chief Economic Adviser, and James Richardson, Director, Fiscal, HM Treasury.
Oral Evidence
Letter from Robert Chote, Chairman, OBR, to Rt Hon. Andrew Tyrie MP 12 October 2015 (OBR0001)
Letter from Robert Chote, Chairman, OBR, to Rt Hon. Andrew Tyrie MP 18 December 2015 (OBR0002)
Letter from Lord Burns, Chair, Oversight Board to Rt Hon. Andrew Tyrie MP 29 September 2015 (OBR0003)

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