Public Sector Debt
Treasury

William Cash (Stone, Conservative)

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the level of total public sector debt including off-balance sheet debt in each of the last five years.

Chloe Smith (Norwich North, Conservative)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces a monthly estimate of public sector net debt, excluding the temporary effects of financial interventions. The monthly estimate of public sector net debt is published on the ONS website, available at

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Public+Sector+Finance

The following table contains the latest ONS estimate of public sector net debt, for the last five financial years.

In November 2011 the Government produced its first Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) document for the financial year 2009/10. WGA is a consolidated set of financial statements for the UK public sector. It consolidates the audited accounts of around 1,500 organisations across the public sector, including central Government departments, local authorities, devolved Administrations, the Health Service, and public corporations, in order to produce a comprehensive, accounts-based picture of the fiscal position in any one year. This document is available on HM Treasury website at:

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/psr_government_accounts.htm

The Statement of Financial Position sets out the assets held and liabilities owed by the Government, in a snapshot of the public sector balance sheet as at 31 March 2010. It shows that, at 31 March 2010, the public sector held assets valued at £1,208 billion and had total liabilities of £2,419 billion. The public sector therefore faced a total net liability of £1,212 billion on an International Financial Reporting Standards basis.