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Brexit: European Investment Bank (European Union Committee Report)

I have in front of me the relevant paragraph in the Select Committee report, which states that:

“The EIB’s liabilities do not feature on the national balance sheets of EU Member States”—

which was the point that the noble Baroness was just making—

“but we were told that a similar UK institution would almost certainly feature within the Government’s measure of public sector net debt. While such an institution would also have assets and would probably be able to fund the interest on its paid-in capital, this could have significant implications for the Government’s commitment to reduce public debt as a proportion of GDP”.

The report went on to say:

“The measure of Government debt does not fall within the scope of this inquiry”,

and that it,

“is for the Government to choose the best way to calculate public sector debt”.

The report then continued with the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Butler, that,

“such accounting decisions should not determine economic decisions about the optimal form of support for long-term infrastructure investment in the UK”.

That is a proposition with which I broadly agree. At the end of the day, we have an independent ONS that resolves these theological decisions as to what does and does not score as public expenditure.