Asset Sales Disclosure Guidance

Monday 25th March 2019 Written Statements

[The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Elizabeth Truss)]

The Treasury is today publishing new technical guidance concerning the disclosure to Parliament of Government asset sales.

The guidance is a further output of the Government’s balance sheet review and responds to issues raised in the Office for Budget responsibility’s 2017 fiscal risks report, as well as recommendations from the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee about improving transparency and accountability for major assets sales. The guidance fulfils the commitment to fiscal transparency and accountability made in the Treasury’s 2018 managing fiscal risks to require Departments to disclose the impact of major assets sales on their balance sheets and the public finances as a whole.

The disclosure will take the form of a written ministerial statement (WMS) made to Parliament following the sale of an asset. The WMS will include the rationale for the sale, a justification of its timing and format, whether the sale was above, within, or below the retention value range, and the impacts of the sale on public sector net borrowing (PSNB), public sector net debt (PSND), public sector net financial liabilities (PSNFL) and public sector net liabilities (PSNL—the accounting impact).

A copy of the guidance can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asset-sale-disclosures-guidance-for-government.

[HCWS1446]