Select committee: Treasury Committee

Third Special Report - Quantitative Tightening: Government, Bank of England and Debt Management Office Reponses to the Committee’s Fifth Report

Published 18 April 2024

At a glance

The government's response

This document responds to Fifth Report - Quantitative Tightening.

This is the government's response, published 18 April 2024.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Treasury, the Bank of England and the Debt Management Office each responded separately, and the Committee records that none of its recommendations has been fully accepted.

  • The Treasury says evaluating the overall value for money of monetary policy decisions on an ongoing basis "would not support" the MPC's independence, but that it keeps the design of the framework "under review".
  • On the debt metric, the Treasury's position is that "substantial fiscal costs should not be excluded"; it says fiscal rules are "not a matter for the Bank of England".
  • The Bank says a deferred asset accounting approach "would not be feasible", and that changing the accounting treatment "would not alter the underlying public sector impacts" of QE or QT.
  • The Bank is "working at pace to launch an initial version" of a lending facility for insurance companies and pension funds, and says its next MPC QT review is in September.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

Sources