The OBR is led by the three members of the Budget Responsibility Committee (BRC). They have executive responsibility for the core functions of the OBR, including the judgements reached in its forecasts. They are:
The OBR’s Oversight Board ensures that effective arrangements are in place to provide assurance on risk management, governance and internal control. It consists of the three members of the BRC, plus two non-executive members, currently Bronwyn Curtis OBE, Dame Susan Rice and Baroness Hogg.
The Office for Budget Responsibility established an advisory panel of leading economic and fiscal experts in 2011 to help develop and scrutinise its work programme and forecasting methods. Since then, we have held regular meetings in which we have discussed our work priorities, core publications, and analytical approaches. The panel was revised and expanded in 2023 to include a wider range of experts across six different aspects of our work. Since 2020, the OBR has also conducted periodic roundtables with a set of thinktanks with standing macroeconomic expertise to discuss recent economic and fiscal developments and issues that are relevant to our forecasts and analysis. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, Institute for Government, National Institute for Economic and Social Research, and Resolution Foundation have regularly participated in these discussions and shared their insights. Members of our advisory panel and the thinktank roundtable are not involved in the production of the OBR’s official economic and fiscal forecasts, do not have access to them prior to publication, and are not assumed to have endorsed their contents. Judgements on the medium-term forecasts will remain the sole responsibility of the three independent members of the BRC.
The BRC are supported in their work by the OBR’s permanent staff of 45 civil servants, led by Steve Farrington.
For more information, see our Who we are page.