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"Economic Progress Report"

Volume 21: debated on Wednesday 7 April 1982

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asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to his written reply dated 23 March, Official Report, column 324–27, showing actual figures used in preparing charts in the January issue of "Economic Progress Report", whether he will publish in the Official Report the comparison of changes over successive cycles for the four sectors.

Comparisons of changes in output, employment and output per head over successive cycles for the four sectors within manufacturing shown in chart 5 of the January 1982 issue of the "Economic Progress Report" can be constructed using the data published in the relevant table—"Indices of Output, Employment and Productivity"—in back issues of the Department of Employment Gazette or alternatively in table 7.2 of the CSO's Monthly Digest of Statistics.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to his written reply dated 23 March, Official Report, column 324–27, showing the actual figures used in preparing the charts in the January issue of "Economic Progress Report", whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the increases in manufacturing productivity in the last 12 months on the index weights of production in the third quarter of 1981 for the sectors contained in the index instead of the 1975 weights.

Figures showing the increase in manufacturing productivity, based on weights of production in the third quarter of 1981, are not available.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, further to his written reply dated 23 March, Official Report, c. 324–27, showing the actual figures used in preparing charts in the January issue of "Economic Progress Report", whether he will now publish in the Official Report(i) the index weight of iron and steel in the metals figures and the output, and so on, figures for this part of the industry and (ii) the aggregate figures for known profits or losses of the main chemical companies over this period in respect of their United Kingdom operations.

The index weights of, and loss of production in, the ferrous metal manufacturing industries—the most detailed breakdown within the metals sector for which production data are published—are shown in table 7.1 of the CSO's Monthly Digest of Statistics. Employment figures for the ferrous metal manufacturing industries can be constructed by adding together the employment figures for iron and steel—general—steel tubes and iron castings, as published in the Employment Gazette. A series for output per head in ferrous metal manufacturing is not available, but can be constructed from the output and employment series. This would not, however, be entirely consistent with the published output per head series for metal manufactures published in the Employment Gazette—table 1.8—since the production series for ferrous metal manufacture is not adjusted for changes in the level of stocks.A broad measure of the aggregate profits and losses in the main chemical companies can be found in present and past issues of "Business Monitor PA 1000, Report on the Census of Production" published by the Business Statistics Office. Table 1 of that publication gives gross value added and wage and salary costs in the chemical and allied industries. The difference between these two series gives profits in those industries. The series are based on information provided by the major chemical companies, though some adjustment is made for the smaller companies.