Written question asked by Lord Eatwell (Labour) on Wednesday, 18 August 2021, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 2 September 2021. It was answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative) on Wednesday, 1 September 2021 on behalf of the Treasury.

Public Sector Debt

Question: To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportions of UK national debt were owned by (1) UK households, (2) the Bank of England, (3) overseas purchasers, (4) banks and financial houses, and (5) insurance and pension funds, in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019, (d) 2020, and (e) 2021.

Answer

Most of the Government’s debt is in the form of publicly traded bonds (‘gilts’). The data most recently published on the website of the Debt Management Office (DMO) covering the distribution of gilt holdings are set out in the table below:

	UK households	The Bank of England	Overseas holdings	Banks and other financial institutions	Insurance and pension funds
End-2017	0.2%	24.4%	27.9%	16.0%	31.2%
End-2018	0.2%	23.8%	28.3%	15.8%	31.5%
End-2019	0.2%	23.4%	30.1%	13.3%	32.8%
End-2020	0.2%	31.6%	28.2%	12.0%	27.9%
Q1 2021	0.2%	32.5%	27.6%	11.1%	28.4%

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: HL2345
Session: 2021-22
Subjects: Public sector debt
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk

Public Sector Debt

Secondary information

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