§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when British Telecom will be producing full audited accounts.
§ Mr. Kenneth Baker[pursuant to the reply, 26 March 1984, c. 7.8]: British Telecom produces full audited accounts in respect of each financial year ending 31 March. Their accounts for the 1983–84 financial year are due to be published in July.
§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether exemptions will be sought from the Stock Exchange rules for publicly quoted companies in the event of an offer for sale of British Telecom.
Advances for all purposes net of repayments Gross advances for all purposes of which gross advances for purchase of dwellings Total estimated purchase price of dwellings on which advances in C were made C as a ‥ of D (A) £m (B) £m (C) £m (D) £m (E) £m 1979 5,271 9,103 9,081 14,246 63.7 1980 5,722 9,614 9,590 15,927 60.2 1981 6,331 11,991 10,862 17,802 61.0 1982 8,147 15,339 13,547 20,357 66.5 1983 11,041 19,341 17,262 25,410 67.9 Source: Financial Statistics—Tables 7.4 and 7.6
Housing and Construction. Statistic—Tables 1.6 and 1.10(1.8 for 1979 and 1980)
106W
§ Mr. Kenneth Baker[pursuant to the reply, 26 March 1984, c. 7–8]: Exemptions from the prevailing rules would be sought if necessary but whether such exemptions would indeed be needed will not be clear until closer to the offer for sale.
§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what is the basis of depreciation used by British Telecom in its accounting practices;
(2) what is the difference in British Telecom accounts between normal depreciation and supplementary depreciation.
§ Mr. Kenneth Baker[pursuant to the reply, 26 March 1984, c. 7–8]: The depreciation policies employed by British Telecom in respect of the financial year ending 31 March 1983 are explained in detail in the accounting policies section of the corporation's report and accounts for 1982–83, which were laid before Parliament in July 1983. This showed historical cost depreciation on fixed assets to be determined on a straight line basis so as to write off the historical cost over their useful lives. Supplementary depreciation was a further charge to take account of the replacement cost of fixed assets.
§ Mr. Soamesasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when British Telecom's programme of installing digital exchanges will be complete.
§ Mr. Kenneth Baker[pursuant to the reply, 26 March 1984, c. 7–8]: BT aims, under its accelerated programme of digitalisation, to have two million digital exchange lines in service by 1986, double their original target. This will include 30 trunk units and 1,200 system X local exchanges. It intends to have completed the full digitalisation of the trunk network by the end of the decade.