MPs are calling on the government re-establish the annual Budget as the main focus of fiscal and economic policy making. This follows the gradual shift in emphasis towards the Autumn Statement which has taken on the role of a second full Budget.

In the report on the role of the Autumn Statement, the Treasury Committee also recommended that the Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) should curb over-optimism in its forecasts and do more to ensure that there is greater public understanding of the limitations and purpose of forecasting.

The report states that the Autumn Statement, while being useful to appraise the effectiveness (or otherwise) of measures announced in the spring Budget, has taken on the role of a second, full, Budget.

The implications are that business and the economy needs to react to two periods, not one, of potential uncertainty and change.

The report recommends that, 'a return to a position of one Budget in the spring, and an updating statement in the autumn, would be desirable'.

The report also called for change in Budget 2013 timing which is currently scheduled to take place on Wednesday 20 March. It states that in 2012 the timings set by the government to debate the Budget and the Finance Bill were 'highly unsatisfactory'.

There is a risk that the government might schedule the Second Reading of the Finance Bill, and perhaps also the Committee of the Whole House stage, for the week of 15 April 2013, which the Committee says would be wholly unacceptable and would fail to give the House appropriate time to consider the Bill and the conclusions of the Treasury Committee.

As such the report recommends that Treasury and business managers ensure that more time be given to debate the Finance Bill as it is 'an important issue of principle going to the heart of Treasury Ministers' accountability to parliament'.

The Committee also assessed the OBR's economic and fiscal forecasts and concluded that so far the forecasts have been biased to over-optimism. This is a cause for concern as the OBR's forecasts have implications for decisions on public policy, warned MPs.

The fiscal mandate is defined with direct reference to a forecast, and because the OBR's is at present the only official forecast against which the fiscal mandate can be measured.

The report has been submitted to the Treasury and the OBR for consideration.