§ Mr. Hordernasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will publish a list of guarantees and letters of comfort given by nationalised industries, and their subsidiaries, and any other trading organisation in which the Government have an interest; if he will publish the sums of money involved not covered by existing statutory financial limits; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Joel BarnettI have been asked to reply.
Nationalised industries and other public sector trading bodies already disclose guarantees in their published accounts as legally enforceable contingent liabilities. As outlined in paragraph 91 of the 1978 Treasury Minute (Cmnd. 7402), arrangements have been made to ensure that comfort letters will be similarly treated in future, unless the relevant borrowing is counted against the statutory financial limits of the organisation concerned. It is not necessary under normal accounting practice for individual guarantees to be listed or itemised as to amount and there can be good reasons of commercial confidentiality for not doing so. As statutory borrowing limits for any trading body come up for review, the Government will consider the inclusion of borrowings that are the subject of guarantees or comfort letters by the body concerned. The hon. Gentleman will know that in the case of the National Enterprise Board the Government have proposed in the Industry Bill that all borrowing by all subsidiaries should in future count against the NEB's statutory borrowing limit. While the Government do not have detailed information across the board, there is no reason to suppose that there are sums at issue significant in relation to the liabilities of the other bodies concerned.