To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Baroness Crawley on 19 January (WA 236–7), what proportion of United Kingdom gross domestic product was represented by manufacturing in 1997. [HL1439]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Dennis Roberts, Director, Survey and Administrative Sources, Office for National Statistics, to Lord Stoddard, dated January 2010.

The Director General of the Office for National Statistics has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what proportion of United Kingdom Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was represented by Manufacturing in 1997. 1 am replying in his absence. (HL 1439)

When assessing industry percentages to total production it is more appropriate to assess against Total Gross Value Added (GVA) as opposed to GDP. This is because GDP equals GVA plus unallocated taxes and subsidies such as VAT which are not able to be allocated to industry production and thus the percentages calculated would not add to 100 per cent.

In current (nominal) price terms for the calendar year 1997 Total Manufacturing is estimated to have made up 20.3 per cent of Total GVA.