§ Mr. William RossTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table to show the publicly owned assets which are still to be privatised, the596W Government's estimated value of each of these assets and the total value and the liability of each such asset and how much public money would be required to write off such liabilities before sale to the private sector.
§ Mr. MaudeThe major privatisation candidates are British Technology Group, Northern Ireland Electricity, British Coal and British Rail. The proceeds likely to be obtained depend on market conditions at the time of sale and decisions yet to be taken. The cost to the Exchequer of recapitalisation prior to sale for any privatisation candidate will depend on future decisions and will be announced in due course in the usual way.