Written question asked by Lord Roberts of Conwy (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Conservative) on Monday, 24 January 2011 on behalf of the UK Statistics Authority.

Banking: Liability

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the total liabilities of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group that may be added to the public sector net debt.

Answer: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply. Letter from Stephen Penneck, Director General for Office for National Statistics, to Lord Roberts, dated January 2011 As Director General of the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking Her Majesty's Government the total liabilities of the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group that may be added to the public sector net debt. [HL5947] In November 2009, ONS published an article which estimated that the impact might be between £1 trillion and £1.5 trillion. [www.statistics.gov.uk/articles/nojournal/Financial-crisis.pdf,] Work to quantify these impacts more precisely and to implement them in public sector finances statistics has proceeded subsequently The November 2010 Public Sector Finances: Statistical Bulletin, published 21 December 2010 and available at www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/psf1210.pdf, explained that ONS intends to incorporate the data for these two banking groups into the Public Sector Finances: Statistical Bulletin that will be released on 25 January 2011. This will be accompanied by an article describing the data and the methodology used.

Secondary information