Our inquiry
1. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt Hon Gordon
Brown MP, delivered his tenth and latest Pre-Budget Report on
6 December 2006.[1] In
accordance with past practice, we have undertaken an inquiry into
the Pre-Budget Report.[2]
We held three evidence sessions in the week following the Pre-Budget
Report—from outside experts[3]
on Monday 11 December, from Treasury officials on Tuesday 12 December
and from the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Wednesday 13 December.
We received a range of written evidence which is published with
this Report. We also benefited from oral evidence which we took
from the Governor of the Bank of England, Mr Mervyn King, and
other members of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Bank
of England, on 30 November 2006 as part of our examination of
the November 2006 inflation report.[4]
We are most grateful to all those who gave evidence, and to Professor
David Heald of Sheffield University and Professor Colin Talbot
of Manchester Business School for their specialist advice.
Our other inquiries
2. Our examination of the 2006 Pre-Budget Report
has complemented three other inquiries which we are undertaking.
Some matters raised during evidence on the Pre-Budget Report were
relevant to our inquiry on Globalisation: its impact on the real
economy, on which we have been taking evidence in the second half
of 2006 and on which we will report shortly. We will soon be taking
oral evidence on two new inquiries, one on the Comprehensive Spending
Review: emerging issues,[5]
and another on Climate change and the Stern review: the implications
for HM Treasury policy on tax and the environment.[6]
Certain issues related to the 2006 Pre-Budget Report will be examined
in more detail in the Reports arising from those inquiries.
1 HC Deb, 6 December 2006, cols 305-314; HM Treasury,
Pre-Budget Report: Investing in Britain's potential: Building
our long-term future, Cm 6984, December 2006 (hereafter Pre-Budget
Report 2006) Back
2
Treasury Committee, Second Report of Session 2005-06, The 2005
Pre-Budget Report, HC 739 (hereafter HC (2005-06) 739), para
1 Back
3
Divided into two part-sessions, the first broadly concentrating
on macroeconomic issues (with Mr Robert Chote, Institute for Fiscal
Studies, Professor David Miles, Morgan Stanley, Ms Bridget Rosewell,
Volterra Consulting, and Dr Martin Weale, National Institute for
Economic and Social Research) and the second examining microeconomic
issues (with Professor Colin Talbot, Manchester Business School,
and Mr John Whiting, PricewaterhouseCoopers, together with Mr
Chote and Mr Weale). Back
4
Treasury Committee, Bank of England November 2006 Inflation
Report: Oral and Written Evidence, HC (2006-07) 89-i Back
5
See Treasury Committee press notices No. 54 of Session 2005-06
and No. 13 of Session 2006-07, available at http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/treasury_committee/treasury_committee_press_notices.cfm. Back
6
See Treasury Committee press notice No. 14 of Session 2006-07,
available at http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/treasury_committee/treasury_committee_press_notices.cfm. Back
