§ Mr. Paul Deanasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the effect on the Department for National Savings' cash limit will be of the decision to fund a significantly larger proportion of the public sector borrowing requirement through National Savings and the provision in the Finance Act 1980 to defund the National Savings Bank investment account from 1 January 1981.
§ Mr. LawsonSubject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate the cash limit on Department for National Savings Estimate, Class XIII, Vote 11, will be increased by £3.5 million to £65,475,000. This is being met from the unallocated contingency reserve within the planned levels of public expenditure. The increase has three approximately equal components: additional publicity to help secure the additional funding from national savings; an appropriate reapportionment of expenses between the National Savings Bank and other services and the defunding of the investment account of the National Savings Bank. In the case of the last item, which accounts for £1.5 million of the £3.5 million increase, there is an equal offsetting reduction in debt interest.