Budget Responsibility Bill: Committee: Amendment 2

MPs voted on 4 September 2024 on Amendment 2 to the Budget Responsibility Bill at committee stage. The amendment would have allowed the Office for Budget Responsibility to notify the Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests if it believed a government failure to commission an OBR report before a major fiscal announcement might amount to a breach of the Ministerial Code. The amendment was defeated by 375 votes to 73. The Bill itself was designed to prevent a repeat of the 2022 mini-Budget, when the government of the day announced large fiscal commitments without commissioning an OBR forecast first. Its core requirement is that HM Treasury must obtain independent OBR scrutiny before a minister announces a fiscally significant measure. Amendment 2 would have gone a step further, giving the OBR a route to flag potential ministerial conduct issues to the Independent Adviser, adding a layer of accountability beyond the Bill's existing provisions. The Liberal Democrats provided virtually all of the 73 votes in favour, joined by the four Green MPs, three Plaid Cymru MPs, and one Alliance MP. All Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted opposed the amendment, producing the 375 majority against. The SNP had no votes recorded. The government argued the Bill's existing provisions were sufficient and that the amendment was unnecessary; the Liberal Democrats contended it was a useful safeguard to ensure ministers could not sidestep independent fiscal scrutiny without consequence.