The mistake which led to the government’s 2012 spending plans being placed on the internet on Thursday was made by a worker at an external company, prime minister Mark Rutte told MPs on Thursday night.

The documents were found by a hacker on Thursday afternoon. He simply used last year’s budget website url and changed the date to 2012 to find the documents awaiting formal publication.
The leak is extremely irritating and unfortunate, the prime minister said.

Queen’s speech
The government had been planning to publish the documents on Friday, four days ahead of their formal presentation in parliament and the queen’s speech. The aim of the early publication, agreed last year, is to give MPs enough time to prepare properly for Wednesday and Thursday’s traditional debate.
MPs are free to comment on the documents but have agreed not to debate them with each other until then. Ministers will not comment on the plans until Tuesday because this would not be ‘correct protocol’ with regard to the queen.
Next year, the budget documents will not be published until Tuesday, the prime minister said.