1. On Wednesday 22 April, the Rt. Hon. Alistair Darling MP delivered his second Budget, a Budget for what he described in evidence to us as "extraordinary and very uncertain times".[1] Following our usual practice, we are producing this Report in time for the Second Reading of the Finance Bill. We took evidence on 27 April from independent economic experts; on 28 April from Treasury officials; and on 29 April from the Chancellor. We are grateful to all of our witnesses and to those who submitted the written evidence which is appended to this report. We are also grateful to our specialist advisors on this inquiry, Professor David Heald of Aberdeen University and Professor Geoffrey Wood of the Cass Business School, London.

2. In keeping with our usual practice this Report also draws on other evidence we have taken. In this Report we refer to 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, as part of our scrutiny of the MPC's February 2009 Inflation Report.[2]

2   Treasury Committee, Bank of England February 2009 Inflation Report: Oral and Written Evidence, HC (2008-09) 376-i Back