Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made on his fiscal consolidation plans.

As a result of the clear, credible and specific consolidation plans the Government set out in 2010, significant progress has been made in reversing the unprecedented increase in borrowing between 2007-08 and 2009-10. Public sector net borrowing has fallen by more than a third since 2009-10 and is forecast to have fallen by half as a share of GDP by the end of 2014-15.

Public spending control is central to the Government’s commitment to reduce the deficit. By the end of the 2013-14 financial year, £67 billion of spending reductions had already been implemented; by the end of the current financial year, the Government will have delivered £82 billion of the £99 billion of spending reductions planned by 2015-16.