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Aggregates Tax

Mr. Key: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide an estimate of the revenues the Government will receive from the aggregates tax in the current financial year. [10642]

Mr. Boateng: The aggregates levy will not be operational until April 2002. Therefore the Government will receive no revenue in the current financial year.

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make an estimate of the revenues the Government will receive from the aggregates tax in the next financial year. [10994]

Mr. Boateng: An assessment of the revenues expected from the introduction of the aggregates levy was given in the Financial Statement and Budget report 2001. Forecast revenues will again be published in autumn's pre-Budget report. The revenues raised from the levy will be returned to business and local communities affected by quarrying through a 0.1 percentage point cut in employers' NICS and a new Sustainability Fund.

Mr. Key: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the impact of the aggregates tax upon the construction industry. [10644]

Mr. Boateng: Budget 2000 announced that the Government had decided to introduce an aggregates levy with effect from April 2002. It will be charged at £1.60 per tonne on the commercial exploitation of primary aggregates in the UK, including those imported from abroad. Aggregates exported from the UK will be exempt.

A full regulatory impact assessment was published at the time of Budget 2000.

It is envisaged that a higher price of primary aggregate will provide an incentive to make better use of recycled aggregates and other alternatives, and more efficient use of primary aggregate. The impact on the actual costs to the end user will be dependent on the commercial decisions of those in the supply chain.

Minimum Wage

Mr. Challen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in the Morley and Rothwell constituency are benefiting from the minimum wage. [10278]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

30 Oct 2001 : Column: 630W

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Colin Challen, dated 30 October 2001:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question about the number of people in the Morley and Rothwell constituency who are benefiting from the national minimum wage (NMW). (10278)

The Office for National Statistics has published estimates of the number of jobs paid at less than NMW rates for 1998, 1999, and 2000. These estimates are based on an improved methodology using data from the New Earning Survey (NES) and Labour Force Survey (LFS). This methodology provides the best estimates for the number of jobs in the UK paid below low hourly rate thresholds and was developed to overcome the deficiencies inherent in using the NES and LFS separately for measuring low pay.

Estimates for the United Kingdom and Government Office Regions are posed on the National Statistics website at:

www.statistics.gov.uk/nsbase/themes/labour–market/nmw– lowpay–tables.asp

Estimates for Parliamentary Constituencies of numbers of jobs paid below NMW rates are not available on the basis of the methodology applied for producing the national and regional level figures.

Mr. Cox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many people employed in the agricultural sector have benefited from the introduction of the national minimum wage; [10276]

(2) how many (a) men and (b) women are paid the national minimum wage in the UK. [10946]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Tom Cox, dated 30 October 2001:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent questions about the number of people in the agriculture sector who have benefited from the introduction of the national minimum wage (NMW) and the number of men and women who are paid the NMW in the UK. I am replying in his absence. (10276, 10946)

The latest available information is for spring 2000. At that time the NMW for people aged 22 or over was £3.60 per hour. Estimates based on the New Earnings Survey and Labour Force Survey show that in spring 2000 there were 150,000 men and 440,000 women aged 22 or over earning between £3.60 and £3.70 per hour.

The estimates requested for the agriculture sector are not available as the sample size is too small for these to be reliable.

Manufacturing Sector Redundancies

Adam Price: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many redundancies there were in the manufacturing sector in (a) Wales, (b) Scotland, (c) Northern Ireland and (d) the UK as a whole in each year since 1997. [11422]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell to Adam Price, dated 30 October 2001:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about redundancies in the manufacturing sector in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. I am replying in his absence. (11422)

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) can provide estimates of the numbers of people who have been made redundant from a job in the manufacturing sector in the United Kingdom as a whole. However, the sample size is too small to provide reliable estimates for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

30 Oct 2001 : Column: 631W

The LFS estimates of the numbers of redundancies in the manufacturing sector in the United Kingdom for each summer (June to August) quarter from 1997 to 2001 are given in the table.

Redundancies in the manufacturing sector⁽²⁶⁾: United Kingdom Not seasonally adjusted

	Thousand
Summer (June to August)	Number
1997	49
1998	57
1999	64
2000	50
2001	70

⁽²⁶⁾ The number of people who were made redundant from a job in the manufacturing sector in the same calendar month as, or the two calendar months prior to, the reference week.

Source:

ONS Labour Force Survey

GDP

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of gross domestic product was generated by the (a) manufacturing sector and (b) service sector in each of the last five years. [10088]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Lindsay Hoyle, dated 30 October 2001:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your question on the percentage of gross domestic product generated by the manufacturing and service sectors in each of the last five years (10088).

Information on the contribution of individual industries is not available. However, it is possible to analyse gross value added (GVA) at basic prices by industry. GVA is similar in concept to gross domestic product, differing only in adjustments for taxes and subsidies on products.

The following table shows the percentage of GVA generated by manufacturing and services.

Manufacturing and service contribution to Gross Value Added: 1996 to 2000

		Percentage
Calendar Year	Manufacturing	Services
1996	21.5	66.4
1997	21.1	67.6
1998	20.1	69.3
1999	19.2	70.3
2000	18.7	70.2

Source:

Table 2.3 United Kingdom National Accounts 2001 edition

30 Oct 2001 : Column: 632W

Mr. Hendry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list, in descending order, the GDP per head of each (a) county council, (b) unitary and (c) metropolitan area by (i) actual amount and (ii) percentage of the area with the highest GDP in the last year for which figures are available. [10789]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from John Kidgell to Mr. Charles Hendry, dated 30 October 2001:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question on local area estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head (10789). I am replying in his absence.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not produce estimates of GDP per head for the geographical breakdown requested. Instead, estimates are produced by Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS) areas. There are five levels of NUTS in the UK and GDP estimates are produced for the first three. NUTS level 3 is the geography that is most closely aligned to county councils, unitary authority and metropolitan areas and is also the lowest geographical level that data are available.

GDP is a workplace measure of economic activity in a given area regardless of whether the persons engaged in the activity live in that area. GDP per head is calculated by using the resident population in the area. In the absence of another indicator this has been used as a measure of well being at the sub-regional and local area level. However, a better measure would be household income per head as this would be a truly residence based measure. This is not currently available but the ONS is planning to produce estimates of household disposable income for sub-region and local area in early 2002.

Estimates of GDP per head and GDP per head as a proportion of the NUTS level 3 area with the highest GDP per head (Inner London-West) are shown in the following table. The GDP per head for Inner London - West is much larger than any other area due to the high amount of commerce in the area and a fairly small resident population in comparison, which makes proportionate comparisons on this basis more difficult. For this reason, I have additionally provided a third column, showing the same data on our more usual basis of comparison, GDP per head expressed as a ratio to the UK average. Some NUTS level 3 areas correspond exactly to county council boundaries and these are marked with the letters cc.

Gross domestic product (GDP) per head by NUTS level 3 area at current basic prices 1998^{(27),(28),(29)}

	£ million	Inner London: West = 100	UK = 100
Inner London: West	57,281	100	456
Berkshire	19,008	33	151
Edinburgh, City of	18,417	32	147
Swindon	18,129	32	144
Portsmouth	18,012	31	144
Milton Keynes	17,557	31	140
Nottingham	17,373	30	138
Belfast	17,159	30	137
Peterborough	17,158	30	137
Glasgow City	16,495	29	131
Surrey	15,945	28	127
Cambridgeshire cc	15,783	28	126
Inner London: East	15,496	27	123
Bristol, City of	15,472	27	123
Shetland Islands	15,107	26	120
Telford and Wrekin	14,843	26	118
Southampton	14,675	26	117
Halton and Warrington	14,660	26	117
Derby	14,629	26	117
Luton	14,400	25	115
York	14,305	25	114
Cheshire cc	14,172	25	113
Outer London: West and North West	14,045	25	112
Oxfordshire	13,983	24	111
Leicester	13,973	24	111
Buckinghamshire cc	13,813	24	110
Hertfordshire	13,717	24	109
West Sussex	13,622	24	109
North and North East Lincolnshire	13,402	23	107
Northamptonshire	13,369	23	107
Leeds	13,322	23	106
Warwickshire	13,288	23	106
Greater Manchester South	13,204	23	105
Hampshire cc	13,173	23	105
Suffolk	13,143	23	105
Thurrock	13,055	23	104
Gloucestershire	12,772	22	102
Solihull	12,757	22	102
Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan	12,714	22	101
Birmingham	12,456	22	99
Monmouthshire and Newport	12,424	22	99
Flintshire and Wrexham	12,404	22	99
Falkirk	12,227	21	97
East Cumbria	12,217	21	97
Perth and Kinross and Stirling	12,203	21	97
Leicestershire cc and Rutland	12,139	21	97
Bournemouth and Poole	12,078	21	96
Coventry	12,013	21	96
South Ayrshire	11,934	21	95
Bedfordshire cc	11,874	21	95
Kingston Upon Hull, City of	11,850	21	94
Norfolk	11,825	21	94
Kent cc	11,800	21	94
North and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire	11,730	20	93
Wiltshire cc	11,708	20	93
West Lothian	11,683	20	93
Essex cc	11,640	20	93
Worcestershire	11,467	20	91
Plymouth	11,437	20	91
Blackburn with Darwen	11,420	20	91
Angus and Dundee City	11,387	20	91
Darlington	11,254	20	90
Sheffield	11,171	20	89
North Yorkshire cc	11,085	19	88
Dumfries and Galloway	11,063	19	88
Southend-on-Sea	11,016	19	88
Herefordshire, County of	11,011	19	88
Liverpool	10,886	19	87
Somerset	10,877	19	87
Hartlepool and Stockton-on-Tees	10,872	19	87
Lincolnshire(30)	10,751	19	86
Stoke-on-Trent	10,738	19	86
Medway	10,639	19	85
West Cumbria	10,556	18	84
Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire	10,510	18	84
Tyneside	10,469	18	83
Dudley and Sandwell	10,428	18	83
Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield	10,423	18	83
South and West Derbyshire	10,404	18	83
Outer London: South	10,358	18	83
Bradford	10,339	18	82
South Teeside	10,299	18	82
Clackmannanshire and Fife	10,275	18	82
Shropshire cc	10,231	18	82
Brighton and Hove	10,206	18	81
Walsall and Wolverhampton	10,191	18	81
North Nottinghamshire	10,176	18	81
Staffordshire cc	10,176	18	81
Lancashire cc	10,173	18	81
Powys	10,144	18	81
Bridgend and Neath Port Talbot	10,121	18	81
East Riding of Yorkshire	10,051	18	80
Dorset cc	10,016	17	80
Scottish Borders	9,974	17	79
Swansea	9,943	17	79
Gwynedd	9,876	17	79
Orkney Islands	9,799	17	78
Devon cc	9,636	17	77
North Lanarkshire	9,573	17	76
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)	9,555	17	76
South Lanarkshire	9,544	17	76
Inverness and Nairn and Moray, Badenoch and Strathspey	9,456	17	75
Sunderland	9,209	16	73
Blackpool	8,899	16	71
Northumberland	8,818	15	70
East Derbyshire	8,802	15	70
Torbay	8,655	15	69
Greater Manchester North	8,636	15	69
Lochaber, Skye and Lochalsh and Argyll and the Islands	8,630	15	69
North of Northern Ireland	8,502	15	68
East and West Dunbartonshire, Helensburgh and Lomond	8,489	15	68
Caithness and Sutherland and Ross and Cromarty	8,467	15	67
South Nottinghamshire	8,448	15	67
Central Valleys	8,422	15	67
Isle of Wight	8,397	15	67
East of Northern Ireland	8,351	15	67
Conwy and Denbighshire	8,295	14	66
Outer Belfast	8,282	14	66
East Merseyside	8,270	14	66
South West Wales	8,258	14	66
Durham cc	8,199	14	65
East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire Mainland	8,191	14	65
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly(30)	8,185	14	65
Isle of Anglesey	8,047	14	64
Outer London: East and North East	8,017	14	64
Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham	7,992	14	64
Gwent Valleys	7,981	14	64
West and South of Northern Ireland	7,862	14	63
West and South of Northern Ireland	7,862	14	63
East Sussex cc	7,847	14	63
Wirral	7,525	13	60
East Lothian and Midlothian	7,503	13	60
Sefton	7,313	13	58
United Kingdom(31)	12,548	22	100

⁽²⁷⁾ Estimates are provisional

⁽²⁸⁾ Includes taxes less subsidies on production

⁽²⁹⁾ Components may not sum to totals due to rounding

⁽³⁰⁾ This area is represented at more than one NUTS level

⁽³¹⁾ Excluding GDP for Extra-region, which comprises compensation of employees and gross operating surplus which cannot be assigned to regions

Source:

Regional Accounts, Office for National Statistics

30 Oct 2001 : Column: 635W

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