The head of Britain’s fiscal watchdog has stepped down following the premature release of key details from Finance Minister Rachel Reeves’ budget. Richard Hughes, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), resigned on Monday after the agency accidentally published crucial tax and spending information ahead of Reeves’ formal announcement in Parliament on November 26.
An internal report revealed that a similar incident occurred earlier in the year, when the OBR’s March fiscal update was also accessible online before its scheduled release — even as Reeves was still delivering her speech. Last week’s leak exposed details of £26 billion ($34 billion) in tax rises alongside new economic forecasts, prompting ridicule and criticism from lawmakers.
Reeves opened her budget speech by calling the mistake “deeply disappointing” and a serious lapse by the OBR. In his resignation letter, Hughes wrote, “I have decided it is in the best interest of the OBR for me to resign as its chair.”
Hughes, who began his first five-year term in 2020 and was reappointed by Reeves in May, leaves amid already strained relations between the fiscal watchdog and the Treasury. Reeves has also denied misleading the public about the UK’s financial position after the OBR disclosed when it had informed her that its forecasts were less severe than expected.
TECHNICAL AND LEADERSHIP FAILURES
On Monday, the OBR said the accidental early publication stemmed from long-standing IT weaknesses that senior leadership had overlooked. The investigation found the vulnerability likely existed before the budget and committed to strengthening systems to prevent future leaks.
The pound and UK government bond prices rose following Reuters’ early alerts last week. The OBR’s report also noted that while the premature access was improper, those who discovered the documents made them widely available rather than exploiting them privately.
In both March and November, the reports were uploaded to unprotected links using predictable URLs reused from previous years — differing only by date — even though they were not promoted on the OBR’s website. In March, a Reuters reporter located the document during Reeves’ speech and published economic outlook updates approximately 25 minutes before she finished.
Last week’s leak occurred when the OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook report became available nearly an hour before the speech began. A Reuters reporter preparing to cover the budget accessed the publicly available link at around 11:30 GMT.
Two OBR non-executive directors described the leak as the “worst failure in the 15-year history of the OBR,” saying it had caused “heavy damage” to the organisation’s reputation.
The investigation found that 32 unique IP addresses attempted to access the report between 11:35 and 12:07 GMT. Ciaran Martin, former head of the National Cyber Security Centre, was appointed to review the breach.
The final report concluded that staff involved in producing the Economic and Fiscal Outlook believed the proper safeguards were in place, but they were not functioning. “The protections did not work,” the report stated, adding that responsibility for the failure ultimately sat with the OBR’s leadership.
Investigators described the OBR’s publishing process as “well-planned but significantly underpowered,” suggesting that improvements require action not only from OBR leadership but also the Treasury and Cabinet Office.
In his resignation letter, Hughes accepted responsibility for the failures detailed in the inquiry.
