§ 12. Mr. J. H. Osbornasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the national indebtedness as at 5th April, 1969, both including and excluding central bank transactions, respectively, and including borrowing by public corporations and nationalised industries; and if he will give a breakdown of the total.
§ Mr. DiamondThe provisional total for the nominal amount of the national debt outstanding on 31st March 1969 is approximately £33,960 million. Details are given in the May edition of "Financial Statistics", published today. Figures for outstanding borrowing by the nationalised industries at the same date are given in Table III of the White Paper on "Loans from the National Loans Fund, 1969–70" (Cmnd. 3995).
§ Mr. OsbornWhilst welcoming the reduction in national indebtedness as evidenced at the time of the Budget, may I ask for the establishment of regular machinery to show the extent of borrowing by nationalised industries overseas which is not investment, deferred payments for defence expenditure and bank transactions, so that we know at regular intervals where we are in terms of national indebtedness overseas?
§ Mr. DiamondWith the exception of the last item, if the hon. Gentleman was referring to short-term bank transactions where it is not usual to disclose the figures, I will consider what he has said.