Pre-Budget Report

In the United Kingdom, the Pre-Budget Report (PBR) is one of the two economic forecasts that HM Treasury is required to deliver to Parliament each year, the other being the annual Budget. The PBR has been announced in a speech by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in November or December each year since the Labour Party came to power in May 1997, however the 2007 PBR (Alistair Darling's first) took place in early October.

According to the "Code for Fiscal Stability", published by HM Treasury in November 1998, the PBR is intended to "encourage debate on the proposals under consideration for the Budget". The PBR includes a report on progress since the previous main Budget announcement (generally made in each March), an update on the state of the national economy and the Government's finances, and is accompanied by announcements of proposed new tax measures, and consultation papers. After the Chancellor's speech in the House of Commons, a pile of press releases and other documents are released by the Treasury and HM Revenue & Customs (formed in April 2005 from the previously separate Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise).

Since May 1997, the PBR has been delivered in the late autumn and the Budget the following spring. This replaced the pattern, followed by previous government's from November 1993 to November 1996, of a Budget in November and a summer economic forecast in June or July. Before 1993, the historical pattern was a Budget in the spring and an economic statement in the autumn.

Dates

The dates of the Pre-Budget Reports from 1997 to 2007 were:

External links

*HM Treasury: [http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/pre_budget_report/prebud_index.cfm Pre-Budget Reports, 1997 - 2006]