§ Mr.CousinsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the special shares he holds in former nationalised companies; what value is placed on those shares based on resource accounting procedures; and what market value is attached to those shares. [147251]
§ Mr.Andrew SmithHM Treasury does not hold special shares in any former nationalised companies.
For figures on the numbers of special shares held by the Government, I refer to the answer my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary gave to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 21 February 2000, Official Report, column 764W. Since 21 February, the Government have redeemed their special share in both PowerGen plc and National Power plc and have obtained a special share in Lattice plc following the restructuring of British Gas plc.
Special shares are not marketable and are not assigned a value within departmental resource based accounts.