Leaked Budget document viewed almost 25,000 times ahead of speech

Office for Budget Responsibility chair Richard Hughes quit as a result

Jenna Brown
clock • 2 min read

A key Budget document was viewed almost 25,000 times before chancellor Rachel Reeves began her speech on November 26, after it was accidentally leaked online, a report reveals.

The Budget document, the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO), was mistakenly released online about half an hour before the chancellor stood up in the House of Commons. The furore that followed saw the resignation of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) chair Richard Hughes and a full investigation. A report from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, has confirmed the Budget document was downloaded at least 24,701 times. It added that a previous report identified 43 downloads. The technical report outlined that the OBR website is hosted by a US company called WP ...

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