United Kingdom Gold Policy

The UK Government has no plans to sell holdings of gold from its reserves and will therefore not participate in the renewal of the Agreement on Gold announced by European Central Banks today.
The Government remains firmly committed to transparency and ensuring the continued integrity of the gold market. Consequently an announcement will be made if the UK’s policy on gold sales changes in the future.

Notes for editors

1. On the 26th September 1999, the United Kingdom joined fourteen other European countries in issuing a joint statement on official gold sales known as the European Central Bank Agreement on Gold. This Agreement was due to expire in September 2004.

2. The Central Banks of fourteen European countries plus the European Central Bank (ECB) today committed to limiting their total sales of gold holdings to 2,500 tonnes over a five-year period starting 27 September 2004, with annual sales of no more than 500 tonnes. Further details can be found on the ECB website.

3. On 7th May 1999, the United Kingdom announced its decision to undertake a programme of gold sales including details of the amount and timescale for these sales.

4. The United Kingdom completed the gold sales programme on 5th March 2002, after selling approximately 395 tonnes through a series of 17 auctions. Reviews of the programme were undertaken by the National Audit Office (January 2001), the Public Accounts Committee (December 2001) and HM Treasury (October 2002). These are available respectively at the following sites:

PDF file of 'The Sale of Part of the UK Gold Reserves' (NAO website)
Public Accounts - Seventh Report (House of Commons website)
Review of the sale of part of the UK gold reserves

5. As with most other countries, the United Kingdom sells a small amount of gold each year for operational reasons. This is primarily associated with the production of United Kingdom gold coins and will continue under the announced policy.

6. The Government’s position on future sales of the United Kingdom’s gold reserves was set out in the Financial Secretary’s reply on 23 February 2004 to the Parliamentary Question tabled by Hugo Swire (East Devon)

7. Media enquirers should call Simon Moyse, HM Treasury press office, tel. 020 7270 4420

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