Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the publication of the Chancellor statement on public spending inheritance on gov.uk on 29 July, what edited changes were made in the "update to redacted content" on 29 July; whether a ministerial speech was originally posted on gov.uk with party political content and, if so, why; whether the Permanent Secretary was consulted on the original upload or the subsequent changes; and what steps are being taken to ensure ongoing compliance of HM Treasury’s departmental communications with both the Civil Service Code and the Government Communication Service's Propriety & Ethics Guidance for Government Communicators.

Due to an administrative error, an unredacted version of the Chancellor’s speech was uploaded to GOV.UK. This was swiftly amended as soon as the error was flagged and an updated, redacted version was uploaded having been reviewed by senior managers.

Per best practice, this was tagged as “information has been added, updated or removed” and is visible on GOV.UK as “update to redacted content.”