§ Mr. StephenTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish the annual figures for house repossessions in Scotland since 1985 by region.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThis information is not available in the form requested. The Council of Mortgage Lenders publishes statistics in its regular newsletters on various aspects of mortgage lending but this is on a GB basis and no corresponding information is available for Scotland only.
However, the Scottish Office Environment Department has recently received figures specially collated by the Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers from the Scottish branches of the four main banks in Scotland—Bank of Scotland, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Clydesdale Bank and TSB Bank Scotland. The figures as at 31 December 1991 were 0.77 per cent. of mortgages over six months in arrears and 0.13 per cent. of houses repossessed in the six months to 31 December. This compares with UK figures produced by the Council of Mortgage Lenders, which excludes the four Scottish banks, of 2.8 per cent. and 0.40 per cent. respectively.