§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will circulate in the Official Report a table showing for 1977–78 and 1978–79 the public sector borrowing requirement excluding (a) debt interest, (b) net cash expenditure on company securities, namely, British Petroleum stock, (c) investment grants and (d) export and shipbuilding credits, but including foreign borrowing by nationalised industries direct or through the market.
§ Mr. BiffenThe information sought can be derived from figures given in the January 1980 edition ofFinancial Statistics, tables 1.3, 2.7, and 5.3, with the exception of figures for general Government payments to public corporations—which must be deducted from the sum of general Government and public corporations' interest payments to calculate debt interest paid by the public sector—and figures for investment grants. Those figures, for 1977–78, are nil and £33 million respectively and for 1978–79 £14 million and £30 million respectively. Foreign borrowing by the nationalised industries contributes towards the financing of the PSBR. Net foreign borrowing by nationalised industries amounted to £520 million in 1977–78 and £50 million in 1978–79.