The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 27 November 2006:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question about the workforces' usual hours worked per week for each year since 1997.
(103255)
The attached table gives the usual weekly hours worked for the requested hourly bands, covering those in employment, for the three month period ending June each year since 1997. Comparable estimates are not currently available for 1998 and 2000.
Estimates are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
Three months ending June each year Total (thousands2) Under 16 hours per week 16 to 20 hours per week 21 to 25 hours per week 1997 26,356 10.3 6.3 4.5 1999 26,876 9.9 6.6 4.8 2001 27,438 9.1 6.8 5.1 2002 27,617 9.0 7.2 5.2 2003 27,863 9.2 7.2 5.1 2004 28,024 9.0 7.1 5.4 2005 28,193 8.8 7.3 5.4 2006 28,339 8.8 7.1 5.4
Three months ending June each year 26 to 30 hours per week 31 to 35 hours per week 36 to 40 hours per week 41 or more hours per week 1997 4.4 6.3 27.1 41.0 1999 4.5 6.2 28.5 39.5 2001 4.6 6.6 29.2 38.6 2002 4.7 6.9 29.5 37.5 2003 5.0 6.8 30.2 36.5 2004 5.2 7.0 31.0 35.1 2005 5.1 7.3 31.3 34.8 2006 5.2 7.2 31.9 34.3 1 Main job only. 2 Includes those who did not state the number of hours they worked, but percentages are based on totals which exclude this group. Note: Comparable data are not currently available for 1998 and 2000. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS)