§ Mr. Nottasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish the total nominal value of the Government debt for which provision is made in the Public Expenditure White Paper, item Debt Interest, for the financial years 1970–71 to 1975–76, dividing the total indebtedness into short, medium and long-term categories and indicating the interest payments attributable to each category.
§ Mr. Joel BarnettDebt interest is defined in the Public Expenditure White Paper in the same way as in the National Accounts; it therefore includes all interest paid to the private sector and abroad by central Government bodies, local authorities and public corporations, including the nationalised industries, but excludes transactions within the public sector. So far as central Government is concerned, information on the National Debt is published in the annual accounts of the658W National Loans Fund and the related Supplementary Statements; those for 1974–75 will be published shortly. But some of the National Debt is held within the public sector by the National Insurance Fund, the Issue Department of the Bank of England and a considerable number of other bodies, funds and accounts, and interest paid on it is excluded from the White Paper figure. Information on these holdings is not available in the detail requested. Information on the nominal value and maturity structure of the debt of local authorities and public corporations held by the private sector is also incomplete.