§ Mr. Shersbyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will consider making the Department for National Savings a self-supporting operation with the cost of pay and administrative expenses being met by investors instead of by the taxpayer.
§ Mr. LawsonThe DNS could become an explicitly self-supporting operation only if it were permitted—which it is not—a margin between the rate at which it borrows from the public and the rate at which it lends those funds to the National Loans Fund. This would be merely an accounting change of no practical significance. What matters to Her Majesty's Government is the total cost of borrowing through the DNS, comprising the interest cost plus adminstrative costs including pay, and this is kept under constant surveillance and is regularly compared with the total cost of borrowing by Her Majesty's Government by other means.