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Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review

I am sure that we will have an opportunity to discuss Northern Rock later in the week. The reason why I agreed that the Bank of England could provide lender of last resort facilities to Northern Rock was that I was concerned that damage might be done to the banking system as a whole. That is the only ground for intervention—a fear of systemic failure. It is not the policy of the Government or the Bank of England to intervene unless there is a risk that something that is happening in one bank will spread to other banks. That is why we intervened, and to that extent the case is quite different from that of any company in another sector. In relation to the financial assistance scheme, my hon. Friend will recall that we gave an undertaking in July to bring the support up to 90 per cent., if we can do that, and I hope that we will be in a position to say something about that in the not too distant future.