Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much accrued to the public purse as a result of the Royal Bank of Scotland paying a dividend to shareholders on 12 October 2018.

The Government’s shareholding in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is managed at arm's length and on a commercial basis through UK Government Investments Ltd (UKGI), a company which is wholly owned by the government, with the objective of creating and protecting value for the taxpayer.

In August 2018 RBS announced that it intended to resume the payment of dividends to ordinary shareholders, and that an interim dividend of 2 pence per ordinary share would be paid to shareholders.

On 12 October 2018 the Government received a dividend of just over £150m. All money recovered from our shareholding in RBS will be used to pay down the national debt.