Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the national debt; and what assessment he has made of the potential implications for the economy of the size of the national debt.

Thanks to responsible decisions taken by this Government, the public finances are back on a sustainable path, with debt on track to fall from 2022-23 and decrease to 83.1% of GDP by the end of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) March 2022 forecast. High debt leaves the UK’s public finances vulnerable to shocks. It is important to rebuild fiscal space in order to safeguard against future threats and allow the Government to support the economy as and when it is needed. The Government aims to achieve a falling trajectory for debt given this heightened level of risk, as well as evidence suggesting debt trajectories are important to macroeconomic performance.