To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many share sales have taken place since 1979 as a result of the Government's policy of privatisation.

Since 1979, the Government have privatised 18 companies, most of them by sale of shares to the public.

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the principal benefit of privatisation lies not in the sale proceeds, welcome though they are, but in the outstanding improvement in productivity and performance of privatised companies, generated by the psychology of enterprise? Is he aware that the profits of the top five privatised companies have increased threefold since 1979 to £4·3 billion, thereby securing far better job prospects than under social ownership?

I do indeed agree with my hon. Friend. The main reason for privatisation is the greater freedom that it gives companies, which they have exploited to improve efficiency and increase production. My hon. Friend could have made his point not only about the top five privatised companies, because every one of the quoted privatised companies is making substantially higher profits in the private sector than when they were in the public sector, and that is very good justification for privatisation.

Is it not a fact that, since Barlow Clowes, people's confidence in the City, the Government and the Department of Trade and Industry has been so severely shaken that it is time the Government took the initiative and bailed out Barlow Clowes?

That does not arise from this question.