The chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has stepped down following a damning report criticising management at the top of the fiscal watchdog after a report was leaked ahead of the Budget.
Under pressure from the government since the leak, Richard Hughes accepted full responsibility for the “technical but serious error” that resulted in the premature release of the OBR’s fiscal report, which included details of the Budget.
The probe into the leak identified “weaknesses” in the safeguarding of confidential documents prior to the Budget process, culminating in the “worst failure” in the OBR’s 15-year history when its report was leaked before Rachel Reeves announced new policies last week.
The report delivered a harsh critique of Hughes’ leadership over the small public body. It also disclosed that measures in the Spring Statement were also “accessed prematurely” in March 2025, although it suggested there was “no evidence” that the details were exploited to anyone’s benefit.
“The ultimate responsibility for the circumstances in which this vulnerability occurred and was then exposed rests, over the years, with the leadership of the OBR,” the report stated, as reported by City AM.
Hughes said: “I also need to play my part in enabling the organisation that I have loved leading for the past five years to quickly move on from this regrettable incident.
“I have, therefore, decided it is in the best interest of the OBR for me to resign as its chair and take full responsibility to the shortcomings identified in the report.”
The principal technical failures centred on issues with a downloading function, which left the document exposed, and difficulties with WordPress, the platform used for website management.
Professor Ciaran Martin, former National Cyber Security Centre chief, confirmed in his review that no “hostile cyber activity” was involved in the premature release of the report.
Non-executive OBR officials Baroness Hogg and Dame Susan Rice indicated the organisation should investigate whether other instances of early access to fiscal reports had occurred.
OBR leadership determined they would revise their Budget report publication procedures, proposing the Treasury assume greater supervisory responsibility for publications given the body’s limited resources.
The report recommended other public sector departments examine their handling of “sensitive material”.
The review stated the initial attempt to access the document occurred at 5.16am on Budget morning.
The pages were uploaded to the website’s “draft area” at approximately 11.30am, which staff at the organisation believed was inaccessible to the public. Approximately 15 minutes later, the first notice of the Budget was seen in a Reuters news flash.
A journalist informed an OBR representative that details of the Budget had been released in the media shortly after.
It wasn’t until Prime Minister’s Questions started at 12pm that the OBR removed the report from online before confirming on X that the Budget had been leaked.
Mel Stride subsequently raised a point of order to express his dissatisfaction with the leak, with Reeves acknowledging the Shadow Chancellor’s criticism by nodding her head.
Earlier on Thursday morning, Keir Starmer described the leak as a “massive discourtesy” to parliament for releasing “market sensitive” information.
The government has previously voiced its confidence in OBR chair Richard Hughes, who is scheduled to appear before MPs on Tuesday morning to respond to queries about the fiscal report.
