§ 48. Mr. Hugh Fraserasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will now establish and make public a central register of all the Government's and other official bodies' shareholdings and investments in public companies.
§ Mr. Joel BarnettNo. Below is a list of the Government's own shareholdings in public companies. As regards holdings by other official bodies, this information is normally published in their annual
639Wreports, I see no need to duplicate these arrangements by setting up a register.
Company Shares Held Proportion of issued share capital held by the Government per cent. Appledore Shipbuilders Ltd. 150,000 £1 Ordinary Shares 100 Beagle Aircraft Ltd. 1,000,000 £1 Ordinary Shares 100 British Nuclear Fuels Ltd.* 27,668,000 £1 Ordinary Shares 100 British Petroleum† 186,092,307 £1 Ordinary Shares and 1,000 £1 8% Cumulative First Preference Stock. 48.2 British Sugar Corporation 3,625,000 £1 Ordinary Shares 36.25 Cammell Laird Shipbuilders Ltd. 1,500,000 £1 Ordinary Shares 22.83 Govan Shipbuilders Ltd. 10,000,000 £1 Ordinary Shares 100 Harland and Wolff‡ 4,000,000 £1 Ordinary Shares 100 John Hastie & Co. Ltd. 200,000 £1 Ordinary Shares and 500,000 Redeemable Preference Shares. 63 Kearney & Trecker Marwin Ltd. 800,000 13½% £1 "B" Cumulative Preference Shares; 100,000 13½ £1 "D" Cumulative Preference Shares. 26.46 KTM Machine Tools (Holdings) Ltd. 338,141 £1 Ordinary Shares 950,000 Redeemable Convertible £1 "A" Preference Shares and 3,222,200 Redeemable £1 "B" Preference Shares. 77.78 Marathon Shipbuilding Co. (U.K.) Ltd. 20,000 6% Redeemable Non-cumulative £100 Preference Shares. 51.28 Mersey Docks & Harbour Co. 4,137,265 10p Ordinary Shares, 1 10p Special Share. 20.67 National Nuclear Corporation 3,685,000 £1 Ordinary Shares 35 North East Coast Ship Repairers Ltd. 1,800,000 £1 Ordinary Shares 73.47 Norton Villiers Triumph Ltd. 3,500,000 £1 "A" Redeemable Preference Shares and 1,372,000 £1 "B" Redeemable Convertible Preference Shares. 47.5 Radiochemical Centre Ltd.* 3,266,783 £1 Ordinary Shares 100 SB (Realisations) Ltd. 42,050 £1 5% Redeemable Cumulative Preference Shares, 581,302 25p Ordinary Shares, and 250,000 25p "A" Ordinary Shares. 100 Suez Finance Co. 645,591 FF100 Capital Shares 7.76 Sunderland Shipbuilders Ltd. 7,000,000 £1 Ordinary Stock Units; 2,750,000 £1 Ordinary Stock Units; 1,312,500 £1 Cumulative Preference Shares. 100 Toplis and Harding (Middle East) Ltd. 998 50p shares 99.8 Triang-Pedigree Ltd. 25,000 £1 Ordinary Shares and 1,000,000 £1 Redeemable Preference Shares. 95 Upper Clyde Shipbuilders 875,000 £1 Ordinary Shares and 12,000,000 25p Ordinary Shares. 48.4 Wolverhampton Industrial Engines Ltd. 50,000 10p "A" Ordinary Shares 2.4 * Section 11 of the Atomic Energy Authority Act 1971 requires the Secretary of State for Energy or the Atomic Energy Authority to retain at least 51 per cent. of the shares in British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. and Radiochemical Centre Ltd. † In addition, the Bank of England holds 20.1 per cent. of shares in British Petroleum. ‡ The shares are held by the Northern Ireland Department of Commerce.