§ Sir Peter TapsellTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the gold reserves of(a) the United Kingdom and (b) Germany. [97152]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe Government have placed considerable importance on making the best use of public assets, including financial assets such as the foreign currency and gold reserves. We considered that with almost half of the United Kingdom's $14 billion of net foreign currency and gold reserves held in gold, it was too big an exposure to one asset. Therefore, we announced on 7 May a technical restructuring of the reserves aimed
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Key stage 1 classrooms provided under the class sizes initiative by local education authority and type of school KSI classrooms provided by type of school Local education authority County/Community Voluntary controlled Voluntary aided GM/Foundation Total Barking and Dagenham 2 — — — 2 Barnet 3 — — — 3 Barnsley 4 — 2 — 6 Bath and North East Somerset 3 2 — — 5 Bedfordshire 21 2 1 — 24 Bexley 6 — 1 — 7 Birmingham 3 — 2 — 5 Blackburn 4 2 4 — 10 Blackpool 8 — 2 — 10 Bolton 5 1 6 1 13 Bournemouth 5 — 4 — 9 Bracknell Forest 3 2 2 — 7 Bradford — — 2 — 2 Brent — — 1 — 1 Brighton and Hove 7 — — — 7 Bristol 5 — 1 — 6 Bromley 12 — — — 12 Buckinghamshire 6 10 5 — 21 at achieving a better balance in the portfolio by diversifying more widely. This will leave the reserves and the United Kingdom as a whole in a sounder financial position in the future.
We have made no assessment of the adequacy of the German gold reserves.