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9 Feb 2004 : Column 1223W—continued
UK Company Profitability
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the profitability of UK companies has been, broken down by sector, in each quarter since 1997. [148179]
Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Stephen O'Brien, dated 9 February 2004:
- As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning the profitability of UK companies, broken down by sector, in each quarter since 1997. (148179)
- The Office for National Statistics (ONS) First Release "Profitability of UK companies" shows the quarterly profitability of private non-financial companies since 1989. It also shows the breakdown into manufacturing companies, service sector companies and oil extraction companies. This First Release is available free of charge from the National Statistics Website and is available in the House of Commons Library. The web address of the latest edition is http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/profit0104.pdf
- The ONS do not publish estimates of profitability for financial companies or for public corporations. A further breakdown of sectoral detail for private non-financial corporations is not available.
UK Productivity
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the productivity of UK companies has been, broken down by sector, in each quarter since 1997. [148176]
Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Stephen O'Brien, dated 9 February 2004:
- As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question on the productivity of UK companies in each quarter since 1997. (148176)
- The attached table shows the level of productivity, as measured by output per job, for the whole economy and for the energy, manufacturing and services sectors. The services sector figures are published as experimental statistics on the National Statistics website. All series shown are output per job indices which are referenced to 100 for the annual average of the year 2000. The data shown are from the first quarter of 1997 to the first quarter of 2003 inclusive.
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| Sector | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Period | Whole economy | Mining, Electricity, Gas and Water Supply | Manufacturing | Services | |
| 1997 Q1 | 94.3 | 88.4 | 89.9 | 94.6 | |
| 1997 Q2 | 94.0 | 88.2 | 89.2 | 94.3 | |
| 1997 Q3 | 94.6 | 88.3 | 90.0 | 95.1 | |
| 1997 Q4 | 95.4 | 86.5 | 90.2 | 96.4 | |
| 1998 Q1 | 95.7 | 86.7 | 90.5 | 96.7 | |
| 1998 Q2 | 96.0 | 87.9 | 90.6 | 97.1 | |
| 1998 Q3 | 96.9 | 89.9 | 90.9 | 98.3 | |
| 1998 Q4 | 97.5 | 91.9 | 90.9 | 99.0 | |
| 1999 Q1 | 97.4 | 93.5 | 92.1 | 98.5 | |
| 1999 Q2 | 97.3 | 96.3 | 93.5 | 98.1 | |
| 1999 Q3 | 97.6 | 100.0 | 95.3 | 97.8 | |
| 1999 Q4 | 98.3 | 101.9 | 96.3 | 98.6 | |
| 2000 Q1 | 99.4 | 103.7 | 97.8 | 99.4 | |
| 2000 Q2 | 99.8 | 102.8 | 99.3 | 99.8 | |
| 2000 Q3 | 100.3 | 98.7 | 100.5 | 100.5 | |
| 2000 Q4 | 100.4 | 94.9 | 102.4 | 100.3 | |
| 2001 Q1 | 101.1 | 95.2 | 103.5 | 100.6 | |
| 2001 Q2 | 100.8 | 96.7 | 102.6 | 100.6 | |
| 2001 Q3 | 101.0 | 96.2 | 104.0 | 100.7 | |
| 2001 Q4 | 101.4 | 96.5 | 102.9 | 101.5 | |
| 2002 Q1 | 101.6 | 97.4 | 103.8 | 101.2 | |
| 2002 Q2 | 102.0 | 101.2 | 103.5 | 101.5 | |
| 2002 Q3 | 102.8 | 96.5 | 106.0 | 102.4 | |
| 2002 Q4 | 103.4 | 97.8 | 106.1 | 103.0 | |
| 2003 Q1 | 103.4 | 96.2 | 107.2 | 103.3 | |
| 2003 Q2 | 103.7 | 95.0 | 109.7 | 103.3 | |
| 2003 Q3 | 104.3 | 96.6 | 111.1 | 104.2 | |
(15) All indices referenced to 100 for the annual average of the year 2000.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the productivity of UK companies with a turnover of (a) less than £1 million, (b) £1 to £20 million, (c) £20 to £50 million, (d) £50 to £100 million and (e) more than £100 million has been in each quarter since 1997. [148177]
Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Stephen O'Brien, dated 9 February 2004:
- As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question on the productivity of UK companies. (148177)
- The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not currently produce estimates of the productivity of UK companies by turnover size bands. Official productivity estimates are based on National Accounts output data. While it would be possible to use other data to produce measures of activity by turnover size band, such estimates would be in current prices only and would be distinct from official productivity measures. Such current price measures would not be able to be related to the official productivity measures, and could only be produced at disproportionate cost.
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Abandoned Cars
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what percentage of abandoned cars were set alight in the UK in each of the four years before 2001–02 for which figures are available. [153395]
Mr. Raynsford: In England, the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) conducted a Municipal Waste Management Survey in 2000–01 which estimated
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that 224,000 abandoned vehicles, recorded for the first time by the survey, were removed and destroyed by local authorities.
An analysis of national fire statistics shows that in 2000–01 an estimated 15,400 fires occurred in vehicles that had previously been abandoned. This estimate represents 7 per cent. of all abandoned vehicles removed and destroyed, as recorded by the DEFRA survey.
Figures on abandoned vehicles before 2000–01 are not available.
Area-based Initiatives
Andrew George: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what progress he has made in (a) reducing the number of area-based initiatives, (b) reducing the need for repetitive strategies of area-based initiatives, (c) reducing the administrative burden of area-based initiatives and (d) improving the ease of access by (i) target groups, (ii) community organisations, (iii) business organisations and (iv) local authority organisations to area-based initiatives in each Government Department which has such initiatives; [153590]
- (2) what steps his Department has taken to (a) reduce, (b) amalgamate and (c) devolve responsibility for area-based initiatives since the publication of the Regional Co-ordination Unit's report on area-based initiatives in October 2002. [153589]
Yvette Cooper: The Regional Co-ordination Unit (RCU) led a review of area-based initiatives (ABIs) in 2001 which included the commitment to significantly reduce the number of separate funding streams without reducing the total amount of funding. The RCU published a report in July 2003, outlining plans to reduce ABIs by almost 50 per cent. Copies of that 2003 report are available in the Library of the House.
The RCU also operates a Gateway for assessing new and developing area-based initiatives to ensure that initiatives are carefully designed to achieve their goals while taking opportunities to minimise bureaucracy, and make links to other initiatives.
Council Tax
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will set a 2 per cent. cap on council tax increases for pensioners; and what he estimates the cost to his Department of subsidising a 2 per cent. cap would be. [154306]
Mr. Raynsford: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has no plans to set a cap on council tax increases for pensioners. It is not possible to estimate how much such a subsidy would cost in the coming year as this depends on the level of council tax set by local authorities.
Council Tax Bands
Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make it his policy to consult interested parties on the possibility of increasing the number of council tax bands for dwellings valued up to £40,000. [153306]
Mr. Raynsford: The Local Government Act 2003 provides for a council tax revaluation in England in 2007 based on 1 April 2005 values. As the 2001 White
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Paper, "Strong Local Leadership, Quality Public Services" made clear, ahead of revaluation, the Government will listen to the views of local government and taxpayers about council tax bands. Decisions on any changes to the banding structure will be taken nearer to the time of the revaluation.
Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the width of council tax bands on residents of mobile homes. [153307]
Mr. Raynsford: The 2001 White Paper, "Strong Local Leadership, Quality Public Services", noted the concern that council tax bands were not fine grained enough to reflect difference in value at the top and the bottom of the property market and acknowledged that residents of mobile homes and other very low value property have added to calls to split band A. The Local Government Act 2003 provides for a council tax revaluation in England in 2007 based on 1 April 2005 values. The White Paper made clear that ahead of revaluation the Government will listen to the views of local government and taxpayers about council tax bands. The Balance of Funding Review has also been considering evidence on possible changes to existing bands. Decisions on any changes to the banding structure will be taken nearer to the time of the revaluation.
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