Speeches by Grady.

“I refer the House to my declaration in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and the fact that I am chair of the all-party parliamentary group on Qatar. I thank the Prime Minister for his emphasis on compliance with the law. What discussions have the Government held with the Government of Qatar and other regiona…”

“Briefly, Sir Robert, is there anything you would change in the architecture of the political and parliamentary side and its interaction with the OBR, along the lines of what Mr Hughes has mentioned?”

“Dame Meg has mentioned, for instance, having a debate or statement in Parliament on the long-term report. Are there any other architectural changes you would suggest on the political side of the table in responding to the OBR’s longer-term projections?”

“To really come to the point, do you think that we as politicians need to do a bit more to face into the long-term challenges that Britain faces?”

“It is not an exact science. Vast amounts of it are contested and carry significant amounts of uncertainty—as the non-economist on the Committee, I feel entitled to say that. The idea that the OBR can somehow achieve perfection here is for the birds. Ultimately, would you say that we on this side of the table need to st…”

“Mr Hughes, thinking through this hearing and reflecting on your time at the OBR, the OBR is meant to be a technocratic, independent organisation that commands the confidence of us politicians and the public, but it has a very hard job—a job that I have sympathy with. You have limited headroom and high debt to GDP, so t…”

“Sir Robert, you are nodding. Briefly, do you agree with what Mr Hughes has said?”

“Do you feel that the fiscal lock has strengthened the OBR’s independence?”

“Please be brief, because I am forecasting that we need to bring this session to a close at some point in the near future. If the fiscal lock had been in place under the previous Government—you have mentioned covid and the energy crisis—would you have carried out any further analysis compared with what you did, Mr Hughe…”

“Finally, Mr Hughes, is one of the messages that we need to be careful about blaming the OBR for a set of circumstances that arise from events and political decisions?”

“And when would you expect that primary legislation to be advanced?”

“What is behind the delay in primary legislation? Is it that politicians are dragging their feet? Is it that we don’t have enough civil service capacity—at the same time as we are looking to downsize the Treasury? Is it a lack of particular skills in the Treasury, such as draftsmanship and legislative drafting skills? W…”

“Only myself and Mr Dickson were there, and he was very young. When will phase 2 of the consultation on the Consumer Credit Act open?”

“So another hidden cost of Brexit is that we haven’t been able to undertake the legislative modernisation to get growth.”

“I have a couple of follow-up questions. Do you understand the mechanism by which this information was leaked? Was it electronically? Was it in person?”

“I have a tiny question, Mr Bowler. I concede that there are minor leaks, big leaks and things in between, but culturally, is it attractive to have a situation where even a small leak is not followed up at present? There is a new process, and you want to show everyone you are really serious about this, but you are not e…”

“That would suggest that in the Treasury, or in the pool of people who had access to this information, there are evidential gaps that meant you were unable to trace how it was leaked—so people deleted messages, did not keep a proper diary of what they were up to or whatever.”

“Sticking with legislation, obviously we want more growth in the economy, and a key focus of that is FCA regulation. Mr Rathi, the chief executive of the FCA, wrote to us last month with a pretty broad list of areas where the FCA is waiting for regulation. Why is it taking so long to push through legislation to back up …”

“Just before we move on to primary legislation again, the Consumer Credit Act passed in 1974, when we had only three TV channels and “Rising Damp” made its debut, and the ATM had come in only in 1967. It was a very different payments landscape.”

“To turn it on its head, before I go back to Dame Meg, are you confident that the civil service in the Treasury is able to progress this, so that, for example, we can get this legislation into the next King’s Speech, if we so desired?”