Mr. Robert Chote:

In some cases, they could ask parliamentary questions. For example, if they proposed to introduce a measure which proposed to raise income tax rate X to Y they could table a parliamentary question or an inquiry to the House of Commons Library. One often finds that some of the costing elements of manifesto packages are basically what MPs or parties have been told in response to parliamentary questions. Another route is the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which organisation I ran prior to taking up my role at the OBR. Obviously, the institute does not have all of the data and information that would be available within Government but in some cases it can come up with reasonably good estimates and in others it has to throw up its hands and admit it does not have the evidence to respond. There is no formal process for the sign-off of Opposition policy platforms. The Dutch are the most dramatic in this regard in terms of their having had 2,500 policy proposals from nine parties costed in the run up to its last election. It took 80 people three months, full-time, to do that work. It is an enormous exercise. For the Australians, which costed fewer proposals, it was a slightly lesser exercise.

I echo the point made earlier by Professor McHale that the idea of throwing inadequate resources to the job people are being asked to do is a recipe for destroying the credibility of the organisation almost before it is started. Alignment of the budget and the job is crucially important.