Let us do our job, warns watchdog

Robert Chote, chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, told an audience at York University that his organisation has the right of access to all official data.

“If we were still being denied information or assistance that I believed we needed to do our job properly then I would simply make those concerns public,” he said.

Similar organisations have been set up around the world in recent years to scrutinise tax and spending measures and counter official spin about the state of public finances.

Mr Chote said: “The creation of the OBR has allowed us to open up the black box of official fiscal forecasting. The Government can no longer claim it has privileged information.”

He added: “People should be able to have confidence that our assessment is both independent and based upon the best available information.”

Mr Chote said his ultimate responsibility was to the general public “whether the politicians like what we say or not”.

He said that the economy is still “struggling for momentum” and there is “significant uncertainty” about medium term growth prospects.

“But it is not for us to complain. We must simply set out our judgements as clearly and convincingly as we can.”