Charter for Budget Responsibility

Torsten Bell Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury (Torsten Bell)]

At Budget 2025, the Government strengthened the fiscal framework in order to deliver on their commitment to holding one major fiscal event per year, supporting the economy with greater policy certainty.

Responding to recommendations made by the International Monetary Fund, the Government set out that they would legislate to ensure that the Office for Budget Responsibility assesses performance against the fiscal rules once a year at the Budget.

The Finance (No. 2) Bill includes an amendment to the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011, the underlying primary legislation that sets out the requirement for fiscal rules assessments.

The draft “Charter for Budget Responsibility: Autumn 2025” has been published on gov.uk. The charter already set out the Government’s commitment to hold one major fiscal event per year. This update to the charter makes technical changes to deliver the policy announced at Budget 2025 relating to fiscal rules assessments, complementing the changes being made to the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act. The updated charter will be laid before Parliament, and a debate and vote will be scheduled in due course.

A copy of the document is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/draft-charter-for-budget-responsibility-autumn-2025

[HCWS1275]