Speeches by Bell.

“Committee rose.”

“As I said and as the Chancellor said to the Committee back in March, so quite some time ago, yes, the process is in its final stages and we intend it to be at its completion before the Budget.”

“It is not for me to pre-empt the Committee in choosing its sessions but, as I say, the process is in its final stages and we would hope to have an update for you. Then it is not for me to decide when the Committee does its hearings.”

“The Committee has an important role in this process. That was set out in the legislation. It has exercised that twice in the past. It absolutely has the right to exercise it in the case of this. All I would say is that the Act is equally clear that the OBR is operating fully within the Act as it stands now, with two me…”

“I agree with the first bit of what you said, which is that there are two highly competent individuals. The Act sets out the process for appointing a chair, which is exactly as you have set out and I have reinforced. The Act is also clear that the OBR is operating as it is now. It produced two forecasts exactly in line …”

“To some degree, you have answered your question. We want to make sure we get the best possible candidate. As the Chancellor said to you on a previous occasion, these are unusual circumstances. We have never had a resignation of a chair before. That led to a period before the advert came out in February. Since then, we …”

“The best thing I can do is to say that, as I said before, we are in the final stages of the process, and we hope to update the Committee in due course because it has an important role to play.”

“The Select Committee inquiry is a good and important one because it is good to be clear about what the role of the OBR is, and it is good to review after what is a substantial period of time since the 2011 Act. When we are being clear about what its role is and what its role is not, you would step back and say that the…”

“No. If I step back, there should always be challenges. We are all—almost all, sorry—elected representatives. We believe in a democracy where decisions are made by individuals, and we have to protect that. That comes with all independent institutions. There is always a delegation of responsibilities, delegated usually b…”

“That is too pessimistic. It is right that the OBR is powerful in the sense of having the ability to set out an independent forecast. We all agree about that. Then the question is how the Government respond to that. Our view is that the Government’s job is to accept that as the baseline for fiscal decision making, subje…”

“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Pensions (Abolition of Lifetime Allowance Charge etc) Regulations 2026. I will briefly take the Committee through the background and purpose of these draft regulations, which relate to the abolition of the pensions lifetime allowance. At the 2023 spring Budget,…”

“We have a good field of candidates. We will nominate somebody and that will come forward to the Select Committee to carry out its important role.”

“No, I am not. I am saying that we are following the normal process that we follow. The Chancellor has written to you and said that we intend to have a chair in place for the Budget, and that is what we intend to do.”

“You name one very good example, John. Other organisations are available. Britain is, to some degree, better than most European countries in those terms. Obviously, they are too lightly funded; any philanthropists out there should be heavily funding economic think-tanks.”

“I have nothing further to add. Question put and agreed to.”

“I am definitely in favour of opposition parties and government parties having scrutiny of their pre-election plans. The OBR should not be the organisation doing that. Lots of other bodies can do that as well.”

“That is nonsense, as you are well aware. There is a reason why it says “right honourable” on your nameplate. At one level, it has not changed very much since what you experienced, if I am honest about that. There are some specific changes around how DEL budgeting works; you will be aware of the DEL review and some of t…”

“I do not agree that that is our lived experience. Based on the lived experience of the elections that I have been actively involved in, which is fewer than you, that is not the case. The issue is not that people pick and choose between different institutions. I take you back to what I said. What is the most important t…”

“All institutions should be held accountable. You guys will hold the OBR to account, and so should the Government. It should be challenged. They are not elected individuals, so that is perfectly reasonable. All organisations fulfilling a mandate, in this case set by Parliament, should have public discussions about wheth…”

“I just do not agree with that characterisation, obviously.”