HL Deb 10 February 1994 vol 551 cc66-8WA
Lord Bruce of Donington

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will state, in respect of each undertaking privatised by them since 1979, the amount involved in the extinguishment of their liabilities including (a) the sums lent to such undertakings out of money provided by Parliament (including sums provided by the National Loans Fund); (b) sums which were taken as being so lent; and (c) interest in respect of any such sums.

Debt written off prior to privatisation
Year Privatisation Amount £ Type of debt
1980–81 British Steel 509,308,359 National Loans Fund
1980–81 British Aerospace 60,000,000 Public Dividend Capital
1980–81 National Freight Corporation' 100,000,000 National Loans Fund
1980–81 British Airways 160,000,000 Public Dividend Capital
1982–83 British Transport Docks Board' 81,293,616 National Loans Fund
1984–85 British Telecommunications 2,789,865,772 National Loans Fund
1986–87 BAA 43,503,340 National Loans Fund
1988–89 British Steel 500,000,000 Public Dividend Capital
1988–89 British Steel 3,480,000,000 Borrowing under Iron and Steel Act 1982
1989–90 Water companies 4,973,332,672 National Loans Fund
1989–90 Water companies 55,013,916 Public Works Loan Board
1991–92 Scottish electricity companies3 1,043,573,600 National Loans Fund
1Privatised as National Freight Consortium (now NFC).
2 Privatised as Associated British Ports Holdings.
3 Prior to privatisation, National Loans Fund debt due to the South of Scotland Electricity Board nuclear programme of f 1,368,390,398 was transferred to Scottish Nuclear Ltd. and subsequently written off.

Lord Henley

The information requested is: (a) the table shows debt written off, and the type of debt concerned, for each company privatised where this occurred. This includes all debt written off since 1979 in companies subsequently privatised; (b) there has been National Loans Fund deemed debt of £3,056,096,517 in British Telecommunications and £1,695,543 in the British National Oil Corporation (privatised as Britoil); and (c) the liability to pay interest on debt remains up to the date of repayment or write off.