§ Mr. Donald Stewartasked the Secretary of State for Trade what has been the profit or loss on the operations of the Export Credits Guarantee Department for each of the last five years.
§ Mr. MeacherThe Department's financial objective on the credit insurance operations representing its main trading activity is to operate at no net cost to the Consolidated Fund after providing such reserves against its liabilities as may be agreed with the Treasury. Since 1974 these operations have produced the following results:
337W
1974–75 1975–76 Increment to reserves (£m) Section 1 29.2 19.2 Section 2 21.2 21.7 Value of reserves (£m) Section 1 152 171.2 Section 2 109.8 131.5 Reserve as percentage of amount at risk at year end Section 1 2.8 2.4 Section 2 4.2 4.2 Comparable figures for the previous three years are not available, because the form of accounts was changed in 1974. But the best measure of performance
Balance held with the Consolidated Fund (£ million) 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 Section 1 … … … … … … … … 93.5 86.7 109.4 Section 2 … … … … … … … … 75.8 72.2 75.5