Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Bill
5:24 pm
Danny Alexander (Chief Secretary, HM Treasury; Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Liberal Democrat)
Of course, the Public Accounts Committee will be able to undertake scrutiny in the normal way. Clause 3 sets out detailed reporting requirements to Parliament for the guarantees, and the PAC will want to scrutinise such matters. As I was explaining earlier, these contingent liabilities will be reported through the whole of Government accounts process, which is the appropriate way to report such things. They will manifest themselves as public spending only as and when the liabilities are called, or where an assumption has to be made about the likelihood of a guarantee being called; otherwise, they are contingent liabilities, as the hon. Lady will well understand.
The Bill contains measures that will support growth, jobs and families, all at minimal expected cost to the taxpayer. It will support the UK’s construction sector by providing access to finance for financially credible, high value for money projects. It will unlock the investment that the UK needs to make it one of the best places in the world to do business, and to support sustainable growth balanced across sectors and regions.